It’s not uncommon to hear that during development, a game’s visuals will receive something of a downgrade, and won’t look as nice as all the shiny E3 trailers we slobbered over.
The Witcher 3 was guilty of it, several Ubisoft games have been guilty of it, No Man’s Sky did it, along with plenty more that we don’t have time to name.
Now, a couple of fans over on NeoGAF believe that BioWare’s Mass Effect Andromeda has received a visual downgrade.
While there are forum members arguing that they haven’t noticed a difference, why not take a look at the evidence yourself and see what you think?
For even greater reference, the initial reveal trailer is just above – below, you’ll find a few comparison images.
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Personally, I’m not so sure there’s been any kind of downgrade. Things definitely look different, but certainly not worse.
In fact, the majority of NeoGAF users seem to agree that the game still looks pretty good, with forum member Garrett Hawke arguing it’s more of a ‘sidegrade’, which seems apt.
They wrote:
Sidegrade. actual game lighting + non bullshot iq + non bullshot DOF. Par for the course really.
However, most users seem to agree that the faces look (and always have looked) wrong, with one member citing ‘uncanny valley’, while another wise user opted for the phrase ‘derpy’.
Whatever the case, as long as Mass Effect Andromeda plays like a good game (please God, don’t be shit), then a few glassy eyed stares and weird faces won’t be too much bother.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.