Tempering expectations / what we actually know (Gaming)

by Kahzgul, Monday, February 20, 2017, 20:04 (2833 days ago) @ Ragashingo

So I watched the trailer a few more times, and as excited as I am for this game, I want to point out a few things that are shown in the video which don't match the hype or advertising:

First: The big one. A "Massive" galaxy to explore. People have fan-theorized this would be like no man's sky. I want to squash that right now. If you look at the galactic map shown in the video, this "massive" galaxy has only 5 waypoints displayed. Now, the clip is super short, and only about 70% of the galaxy is shown, but 5 is not the same as 5 quintillion. It's not even close. I assume they'll release more information about how many explorable locations there are in the future, but based on that clip, I'm going to expect something more like ME3 and less like NMS.

Are there really people expecting infinite worlds like in No Man's Sky?! On what grounds?? There's been no promise of a procedural universe or anything like that.

Kids on the internet sounding off into the echo chamber of reddit, I figure.

There seem to be at least seven possible habitat worlds based on a couple of the most recent videos. Habitat 7 is mentioned specifically and one of the Andromeda Galaxy overviews pointed out a few waypoints or star systems also named with "Habitat #". I'd say, baring more info, seven worlds will be an upper limit. It may be significantly higher if there are less important worlds to drive around and fight minor battles on. Mass Effect 1 & 2 had a few like that. But for core, plot significant worlds... I'd guess seven or less.

This all sounds right to me.

So this video is where people got the idea that there would be untold worlds:

There are certainly lines that would lead you down that path, without explicitly giving anything away. "Whole worlds, teeming with alien creatures and civilizations" "We've created a new galaxy for you to explore" etc.. There are also a few shots (Nomad driving over desert dunes, player cresting a hill) that make the world look free-roamish and quite large. Of course, we have no way of knowing if those are cutscenes or actual gameplay (probably cutscenes, given how early this video was released).

Anyway, I believe most of the hype I read about came from wild and unsubstantiated speculation based purely on what was seen here.

Other stuff: The combat clips do show at least one ranged sniper kill, but for the most part the engagements appear to be in relatively small areas (smaller than ME3's multiplayer maps). Combined with the earlier "playable" trailer, I'm no longer expecting a wide open, free roam world (or series of worlds) to explore. It seems more likely that it will be like Destiny's maps, with very controlled areas you can visit, and the advertising is trying to say that even though the map is a big circle, the fact that you can navigate it in either direction means it's "free roam." Again, we know very very little about the map design, so this is just speculation based on what little we've seen.

It's really hard to tell. We don't know if we're looking at key battle choke points similar to those in seen in longer Mass Effect missions. Or if we're seeing fairly big "open worlds" that have detailed place to explore and fight at. My guess is some of both. Some areas have lots of what seems to be custom structures, like up in the cliffs and stuff, while other scenes looks a bit more Mass Effect 1 ish with little bases of reused geometry and boxes and stuff.

We do know that the mako (or a mako analogue) will return, which means the explorable areas are big enough to want a vehicle to navigate, but from what I've seen in videos, this appears to be more like the warthog sections of halo than like the open areas of ME1.

Double really hard to tell. Most of the shots of the Nomad driving around have been close ups that show very little about the size of layouts of the worlds. My current gut feeling is to expect something like better versions of Mass Effect 1's world size and exploration. Perhaps even ME1 crossed over with Destiny. But I highly doubt we're being dropped into one or more Skyrim or Witcher 3 style vast, highly detailed, highly populated worlds. That simply has not been promised or even hinted at. I do expect something more than a vehicle section in a Halo level, though.

This is a really good point. I can't recall if there have been any videos where the nomad is driving under player control. I feel like there was one, but I couldn't find it in a quick search. You definitely see the nomad as a set piece, used as cover in some of the combat clips just released.

For weapons and abilities, we've seen quite a bit, actually. Snipers give a first person reticle, there are 3 overall classes of weapon (plasma, energy, and ballistic), at least the same five categories within those classes (shotgun, sniper, Assault rifle, pistol, SMG), and multiple guns for each category. There are also grenades, and we've seen many of the abilities from ME3 make a return (biotic charge, singularity, nova, shockwave, all make a return) as well as at least one new power (ground slam a'la strikers), and the ability to jump and hover which opens up new playstyles.

Yep. Powers and combat fluidity looks fine so far.