{"id":44397,"date":"2018-11-20T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=44397"},"modified":"2018-11-20T07:49:29","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T12:49:29","slug":"andromeda-part-6-whats-wrong-with-your-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=44397","title":{"rendered":"Andromeda Part 6: What’s Wrong With Your FACE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The player character has been made the Pathfinder. They’ve also maybe been given superpowers, although in terms of gameplay you’re exactly as powerful as beforeSAM does give you the ability to class-switch in the field. It doesn’t re-allocate your skill points or anything so it’s not going to be useful until late in the game, but it’s something.<\/span>. At this point in the game we cut to see some sort of bad guyWe can tell he’s the bad guy because he’s ugly and has ominous musical cues. What? Were you expecting subtlety?<\/span> exploring the tower that Alec Ryder activated.<\/p>\n

Cue Ominous Music<\/h3>\n

I don't care how much you crank up that blue color filter, nothing can hide how ridiculous this guy looks.<\/div>
I don't care how much you crank up that blue color filter, nothing can hide how ridiculous this guy looks.<\/div><\/p>\n

This is our big introduction to the antagonist. He’s a big topic and he’ll get an entry of his own later in this series. For now I’ll just say that his presence here is not building our confidence in the story.<\/p>\n

Even ignoring the story problems, everything about this scene is horrendous. The MAXIMUM BLUE filter is ridiculous overkill. The foreground is a group of Kett and the background is a an ancient Remnant construction, so they should be in sharp contrast for both thematic and artistic reasons. Instead everything is blue, robbing us of contrast and making the image muddled. This is made worse by the atrociously busy and over-designed armor.<\/p>\n

The big bad is supposed to be an imposing space-lord of doom but he’s shorter than his mooks. His armor makes him look dumpy around the middle. That pull tab on his head looks comical. His face shape is exactly the opposite of what this character concept calls for. He should have a huge jaw, cunning eyes, and a large mouth, because that’s how you make your villain look imposing. Instead he looks like a pouty child, but also a bit like a sheep. Since this scene is cartoon action schlock, there’s no excuse for not using the tools of action schlock to sell your villain.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing how hard the storyteller worked to do the wrongest thing possible. This scene is two and a half minutes with no dialog. If you’re going to sell your villain entirely on the visuals, then you really can’t afford to have an inept visual presentation. <\/p>\n

So that’s the introduction done. The player is now the Pathfinder, they’re empowered by the AI buddy in their noggin, they know there’s a bad guy out there somewhere, and they need to find someplace for human beings to live.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Nexus<\/h3>\n

Good news: They've gotten rid of those annoying loading-screen elevators from the earlier games. Bad news: Loading screen shuttle rides.<\/div>
Good news: They've gotten rid of those annoying loading-screen elevators from the earlier games. Bad news: Loading screen shuttle rides.<\/div><\/p>\n

After the disaster on Habitat 7, the Human ark joins up with the Nexus. Like I said earlier in the series, the Nexus is the flagship \/ port \/ capital city of the Andromeda Initiative. Supposedly all the arks should meet here.<\/p>\n

I really like this scene during the shuttle ride. Your squad has just been through the wringer. Your planned homeworld is a dead rock with a poisonous atmosphere, your Pathfinder died, another member of the pathfinder team was KIA, and another one is stuck in cryo storage. Everyone is looking forward to reconnecting with the Nexus under the assumption that the Human ark just had a run of bad luck and everyone else is doing fine. “Real food and a shower are just ahead,” Cora says hopefully.<\/p>\n

But then you arrive to discover the Nexus is in much worse condition, to the point where they turn around and ask you<\/i> for help.<\/p>\n

The Nexus ran into the scourge, got damaged, and most of the main leadership was killed. The remaining people woke up lost and confused. They tried to settle one of the planned worlds, but the colony was a bust due to Kett attacks. Some people on the station wanted to wake up their families, but that wasn’t possible because there weren’t enough resources to go around. Eventually there were riots. The Krogan were convinced to subdue the rioters. But the animosity kept brewing, and so a bunch of people left the Nexus. Others were kicked out. They stole a bunch of equipment and left to seek their own fortunes. <\/p>\n

Now the Nexus is cold, dark, and empty. They’re low on food, low on power, and none of the remaining leaders have a plan. Instead they mooch power from you and demand to know where you’ve been and what you’ve managed to accomplish.<\/p>\n

What’s Wrong With Your FAAACE?<\/h3>\n

It's hard to show off awkward animations in a screenshot, but trust me. It's awkward, and it was worse at launch.<\/div>
It's hard to show off awkward animations in a screenshot, but trust me. It's awkward, and it was worse at launch.<\/div><\/p>\n

This conversation is one of the moments in the game that became a source of jokes and memes. This is where Ryder meets with the Nexus leadership. It’s a crucial conversation that takes place very early in the game, so you’d probably assume this is where you’d see the most polished content. But at launch this scene was so janky it turned this dramatic moment into a comedic farce. <\/p>\n

There were odd pauses in the conversation. The faces and bodies weren’t properly animated. Instead, everyone stood still and moved their lips while the rest of their face remained motionless. Ryder delivered the news that her father was dead and then the camera lingered on her motionless smiling face, making her seem like a lunatic. The irises of Addison’s eyes were too small, which made it look like she had this wild-eyed Charles Manson look on her face. Director Tann – the Salarian guy – had some strange animations that were probably intended to make it look like he was searching the room, but instead made it look like he was an actor who forgot his lines and was waiting for his cue. It was a spectacular showcase for all the various ways a game designer could find themselves in the uncanny valley. (And on top of it all, the dialog is really bad. We’ll talk about the dialog in the next entry.) It was embarrassing, frustrating, hilarious, and sad. So much time and money was spent making this scene and these characters, and yet all of that hard work looked terrible because this introduction was so strange and off-putting. <\/p>\n

The game has since been patched, and a lot of this is fixed. (For the record, I played this game long after release so all of my screenshots are from the “fixed” version.) The camera cuts make more sense, the awkward pauses are much shorter, Addison’s eyes are less psychotic, and Ryder adopts an appropriate facial expression when delivering the news about her father. It’s still not a great scene. It still feels sort of stiff and awkward and oddly paced, but at least it’s no longer a joke. <\/p>\n

So how did this happen?<\/h3>\n