Mass Effect Andromeda: all information from Game Informer
The Story
The magazine explains that the story of the game takes place around 2185, when humanity is still unaware of the impending threat of Raiders (but after the assault of Saren and Sovereign's ship): in that time several species agree to create the "Andromeda Initiative", which aims to discover and populate new worlds in the Galaxy Andromeda. Are created so huge spaceships each with four Arche brings cryogenic hundreds of members of a different race between farmers, scientists and explorers, directed towards Andromeda. Before the Arks, however, was sent to the new Galaxy the Nexus, a sort of command and control centre operated by members of the various participating breeds: its purpose is to prepare the way for the arrival of the Arks and coordinate the activities once the designated destination.
Each Ark is led by a commander called "Pathfinder", also hibernated during the trip with the rest of the crew; Mass Effect: Andromeda tells the story of the Ark Hyperion, which after its long journey comes for reasons unknown in the wrong spot in the Galaxy, losing communications with both the Nexus that other Arks. The Pathfinder of the Hyperion is Alec Ryder, traveling with his sons Scott and Sara: at the beginning of the game will be told of the events that will force Alec to pass the mantle of Pathfinder at either (depending on who the player chooses to play as a boy or a girl), although without the necessary experience. Regardless of which of the two shall interpret them, the brother/sister and father will be interoperable characters, along with other explorers (for now were revealed only the Asari PeeBee and former human COP Liam), with the ability to customize clothing and armaments.
Exploration, enemies and crafting
The planets we will encounter will be completely new and populated by races never known before: BioWare wanted in this way create a greater feeling of discovery than the previous trilogy where the races encountered were largely already known by humans. Among them will be the main enemy Kett, though is portrayed as more "human" and less monstrous than we might expect: this is due to the desire to partially empathize the player with the enemies themselves, because this time we will be seen as the invaders in the worlds of other species.
What about exploring new planets, this time instead of "mission" reduced we will have the opportunity to explore all the planets in their entirety with the new six-wheel vehicle Nomad: an interesting side note is alleging that the developers have tapped the help of team Need for Speed to achieve the drivability of the vehicle and make it more engaging and satisfying. Unlike the Mako, the Nomad is very fast; It is also customizable in performance and appearance.
On planets explored a variety of structures and areas meet with puzzles, narrative sections, primary and secondary missions and so on. Obviously the planets will have very different body shapes and habitats, and one of our tasks will be to identify safe areas in which the crew of the Hyperion can establish base camps that we can use then as quick travel and supply areas. There will be also present different dangers, both due to the morphology of the planets (like lava pools or acid) but also in the presence of enemies, including even the fearsome "super boss".
There is also an element of crafting: we will scan the environment to retrieve a variety of materials, objects and projects, which can be used later to create weapons, ammunition or alien technologies than ever before.
Fighting and personalization
As for the fighting, the magazine explains what time will it be immediate because you can assign various powers to the pad's buttons instead of having to pause the fighting to select them from the wheel of power (possibility still exists, but is no longer a carrier for BioWare gameplay mechanics); the cover system is still there but now it will be dynamic, with characters entering and exiting from the shell automatically when approaching them. The purpose of this, according to developers, is to make the gameplay more dynamic by encouraging the exchange of shells and moving in the scenarios. One of the novelties of the game will be the jetpack, which will increase our chances of movement (for example we may dodge the enemy blows making quick shots instead of rolling on the ground) and will allow us also to waves in the air to attack enemies over their roofs. The settings will still be less linear and confrontations with enemies will be more unpredictable.
The magazine also speaks to us of the customizability of our character, explaining that now there will be a class system and we will therefore have access to all skills (technology, as a soldier, biotic and so on) with the ability to mix them together to shape our character at will: the purpose is to allow players to try different approaches to combat without being limited by a classy choice made initially. Will be even possible, if we are not happy with our choices, reset all abilities and reassign experience gained on other powers and abilities: the story of the game will give us a narrative reason for this to be possible. In addition to this we will be able to change any parts of the suit of the character even more detailed than in the past.
The Tempest
Although our Center of operations is the Ark Hyperion, this is too big to travel easily between planets and use then a shuttle like Normandy, called Tempest. This will allow us to navigate through the solar system via a Galactic map, but instead of showing a shuttle that navigates the stars on everything will be more immersive showing us firsthand the displacements until landing on various planets, all without loading screens. Once landed on the planet will have to go to the cargo of the ship, boarding the Nomad and finally landed on the surface: a single continuous whole exploratory experience then, without any separation.
Relationships and characters
Once again the game will allow us to form relationships and emotional ties with the various characters, but it was boosted further than ever before: BioWare promises that even the character with less dialogues will still more of the character who had more dialogues in Mass Effect 3. Because of "complications" in the process of awakening from hibernation, however, our brother/sister there can accompany a mission even though we will be able to interact with him/her and find out more details about the past of the Ryder family, something which in itself will be a subplot of the game. As for romantic relationships, however, these do not lead necessarily to the sex scenes because some people may be more interested in long-term relationships, or other form of relationship.
Cooperative multiplayer
Mass Effect: Andromeda will see the return of a fund cooperative multiplayer 4 players, more evolved and refined than ME3 and which will see us play as the militia "Apex Force": will be based on a system of cards obtained through XP and credits and there will also be microtransactions, but will not be mandatory to spend real money to get all the cards. We will again set map and type of enemies to face, but BioWare plans to release even of specific "missions" to let us play. Play multiplayer will give advantages for single player, but you will not be required to complete the game and you will also be able to ignore it altogether.
That's all for now: stay tuned for more information about the game!
