Andromeda, At Least Horizon Zero Dawn Made its Awkward Faces Pretty to Look At

By now, it’s no secret that Mass Effect: Andromeda suffers from some awkward facial animations. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, let us quickly educate you.

You see what we mean? Unfortunately, it seems Sara Ryder (above) suffers heaviest from the awkward facial animations, muscle movements that look fresh off the Botox. But she’s not alone.

While this is certainly amusing to watch, it can also be a little immersion-breaking, especially when you’re deep in a conversation and one character has an uncomfortably soulless face the entire time.

Mass Effect: Andromeda isn’t the first game to have some slightly strange facial animations, though. In fact, the critically-acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn was also guilty of awkward face syndrome. I mean, we all haven’t forgotten about this NPC givin’ Aloy the creepy eyes, right?

But there’s a key difference here. Horizon Zero Dawn’s faces and characters look far more polished and detailed than most of the characters we’ve seen so far in Mass Effect: Andromeda. In many cases, Andromeda’s characters’ hair seems either glued to their heads or flails wildly for some unknown reason. On top of that, faces look oddly absent of detail, and it’s not unusual to see characters suffering from some pretty frequent clipping issues.

Granted, Horizon’s facial animations can sometimes stumble into the somewhat terrifying realm of Andromeda’s, but at least it was only limited to some animations. When you can literally see the pores on somebody’s face and every hair of Aloy’s eyebrows, a quick slip in facial movement is less jarring.

Even the skin looks so… skin-like!

Unfortunately, Mass Effect: Andromeda’s animation woes aren’t limited to just faces, as can be seen by the rather bizarre clip from a serious cutscene below.

Pretending to be an eagle during such a serious conversation is definitely not advised.

If you’re able to overlook the awkward facial animations in Mass Effect: Andromeda, there’s definitely some enjoyable stuff to sink your teeth into. After all, there’s more to life than facial animations, right?

Mass Effect: Andromeda is due to release on March 21 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. If you’ve got an EA or Origin Access account, you can play a 10-hour trial ahead of its release. Though, we didn’t exactly think it did a great job of showcasing the game.

About the author

Chris Jecks

Chris is the Managing Editor of Twinfinite. Chris has been with the site and covering the games media industry for eight years. He typically covers new releases, FIFA, Fortnite and any good shooters for the site, and loves nothing more than a good Pro Clubs session with the lads. Chris has a History degree from the University of Central Lancashire. He spends his days eagerly awaiting the release of BioShock 4.

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