What Went Wrong With ME Andromeda's Facial Animations

It's in the Eyes

The human iris has a natural in half-moon shape, with the upper eyelids covering nearly half of the iris. In Mass Effect Andromeda, the characters' irises are dead in the center of their eyes, with the upper lids way too high for it to look anything but unnerving.



To top it off, most of the characters' eyes are far too wide and the lower lids are way too low - which only adds to the creepiness factor - especially during a lengthy conversation. Characters like Addison, have faces that simply look frozen in shock.

The characters in Andromeda, also have extremely prominent pupils; and to top it off, their eyes constantly dart about unnaturally. This not in regular saccades like we do when looking back and forth between subjects. Coupled with very wide eyes, this looks downright terrifying.

Horrendous Facial Expressions

To make matters worse, the mouths of many characters in Andromeda move either ever-so-slightly or look as though they're Pingu the penguin, while the rest of their face remains absolutely motionless.

This is even more disturbing with some of the monstrous facial expressions that are made by many characters in-game. The default Scott Ryder has a relaxed expression, whereas Sarah Ryder has an unnerving smile plastered onto her face, at what seems to be all times.

Stilted Facial Animations

The acting just feels stilted. One example is after the prologue mission, when Sarah (specifically) wakes up with an awful pained grimace. It doesn't need to be said that hardly any human would react in the above way.

In seems in Andromeda, there is only extreme facial contortion - displaying far too much or way too little emotion.