A developer reveals why the facial animations in Mass Effect: Andromeda sometimes look so bad.
Of all the criticisms that Mass Effect: Andromeda had to endure, the facial animations are probably among the most annoying problems. But how did this issue even arise? Was it simply sloppy work, time pressure, or just incompetence on BioWare’s part?
On Twitter, developer Jonathan Cooper, who worked on Uncharted 4 and before that on Mass Effect 1 and 2, commented on the topic and provided some interesting insights.
According to him, it is unfair to compare the animations of Mass Effect: Andromeda with Uncharted. Animating an RPG is a “really, really huge undertaking – completely different from a game like Uncharted”.
In Uncharted, for instance, almost every encounter is unique and tightly controlled, and the corresponding animations are tailored.
In an RPG of the scope of Mass Effect, it is completely different. Conversations are divided into different tiers according to their importance. The developers ask themselves different questions: Does the sequence belong to the main story? How likely is it that an average player will actually see this dialogue?
This generally leads to small dialogues from hidden, “simple” side quests being processed by an algorithm, and no developer manually touches the animations for these scenes. However, with the associated time expenditure, that just isn’t possible. Quality and quantity are weighed against each other, and “hand-animating” all dialogues in Mass Effect (with almost 1200 voice roles) would likely take months or years.
The result of this algorithm approach is unfortunately that some scenes only have lip movements while the rest of the face remains motionless.
A devastating point is also the age of the “share” buttons. This causes players to pick out the moments when the game looks exceptionally bad, thereby reaching the largest possible audience.
However, Cooper does see one positive aspect in the whole debate that has arisen:
“(…) AAA games with a lot of story should not skimp on animation quality by employing a system for it.”
At least for BioWare, this experience will likely be a lesson.
How about you? Do the sometimes “lifeless” facial animations ruin the game for you? Or do you agree with our review of Mass Effect: Andromeda that this is just a small drop in a bucket and hardly bothers you?
