A lot of new information regarding Mass Effect: Andromeda has been released by Game Informer (via WCCF Tech). GI got an in-depth look at the game ahead of its release next spring. Although this will be the first Mass Effect game that will not feature Commander Shephard, Andromeda looks to take the franchise into new territory.
According to Bioware reps, ME: A the real-time gameplay graphic for this installment will resemble the CGI cutscenes from the first Mass Effect. This is attributed to the power of the Frostbite engine. It required them to create every system, tool and asset from scratch. Creative Director Mac Walters says that the main character, Ryder, is a clean slate, compared to his predecessor:
“Shepard came on the scene, and it felt like they’d already accomplished a lot and they’d done a lot and they’d seen a lot – but I hadn’t. That whole universe was new to me, and so there was a bit of a disconnect between me and my player character right from the start. And so, with this, I’d really like us to close that gap as much as we can without going full amnesia.
Mass Effect: Andromeda will take place on an entirely new ship, The Tempest. Although it takes place in the same galaxy as the rest of the trilogy, we will not see all of the known alien races in Andromeda. They will eventually show up in subsequent games, but this game will keep the scope restricted:
“The key for us has been ensuring that the content is rich and up to BioWare quality standards. Believe it or not, as massive as this is, we’ve actually continued to restrain the scope as much as possible so we can bring quality to each of these areas and make each one memorable. That’s a term I use a lot – I want these places to be memorable. I don’t want it to be like, the white planet, the blue planet – I want to remember the names of the locations and the characters I meet.
According to Walters, Mass Effect: Andromeda will have more romance options than any other ME game that has come before:
“By my count, if you include squad, crew, and light romances, we have more romances than we’ve ever had before. And like I said, the relationships are more in depth than we’ve had before.
Just because someone has a romance doesn’t mean they have a longer relationship arc with you. Think of the relationship moment with Garrus in Mass Effect 3 where you [shoot bottles off the Citadel]. Does it always have to be, ‘Get someone into the bed?’ or can it be, ‘Let’s go have a bros’ moment or a friends’ moment.’
I think once [our writers] started to think in those terms, it expanded what those scenes could be like. But if you want to get down to the sex scene stuff, we got aliens, alien environments…we keep coming up with unique places to have some interspecies relationships.
The [characters] that aren’t romanceable should have just as interesting and in-depth an arc as the ones who do. That’s one thing we did to make it feel more natural. We have to check ourselves because we know the fans want romances, so the obvious thing is to make [everyone] romanceable, but that’s not real. We’re trying to find the balance between ‘yes, it’s a game.’ We want to make these characters as believable as possible and the situations as believable as possible.
Andromeda will have an additional feature that no other ME game has ever had, you can continue to explore the universe after the campaign’s story is complete.
A NEW trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda is expected to hit on December 1 during The Game Awards.
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