Everything we currently know about Mass Effect: Andromeda, the franchise’s debut game for Xbox One
In classical mythology, Andromeda was a pretty lady who had to be fed to a giant sea monster after her dad annoyed the gods. She was spared this fate when the hero Perseus came by on a winged horse. Typical Ancient Greek playboy behaviour, that. Now, imagine that Andromeda is actually a trillion stars arranged in a rough spiral, that the monster is some sort of angry extraterrestrial species, that Perseus is a refugee from the Milky Way galaxy, and that the winged horse is a tricked-out spaceship. Congratulations: you've basically just thought of the elevator pitch for Mass Effect: Andromeda.
BioWare has yet to reveal much about the first Mass Effect game for Xbox One, but it has dropped hints aplenty in addition to some fetching concept artworks, and it's obviously possible to extrapolate from the events of Mass Effect 3. Polish off those calibrations and join us for a rundown. Beware major series spoilers.
SO WHY ISN'T IT CALLED MASS EFFECT 4?
The developers have tied themselves in knots attempting to summarise Andromeda's link to the original trilogy. The game isn't a "sequel" to Mass Effect 3, apparently, but it does take place later in the chronology. It's a fresh start for the series, conceived by a new team at BioWare Edmonton and set in a separate galaxy with an all-new cast, but this is no spin-off. It's to some extent a return to Mass Effect 1 - the hope is to cultivate the same wonder players felt on first setting foot on the Citadel, free of the general emotional baggage you'd amassed by the close of the trilogy. But for all that, we shouldn't call this a reboot.
However you categorise it, Andromeda sounds thrilling. The gist is as follows: many years after the fall of the Reaper threat in Mass Effect 3, the Milky Way galaxy is still in a bad shape. It remains shaken, it appears, by the destruction of the Mass Relays during the Reaper attack on Earth, which has put a stop to easy communication between systems and thus left entire planets and species utterly isolated. It's not clear which of the original trilogy's endings the new Mass Effect treats as canon - this may prove to be one of the choices you'll make when setting up your game - but given that BioWare has promised a mix of new and returning species, we can probably scratch the "Synthesis" ending, under which all organic and synthetic lifeforms were merged into one.
Seeking a new home for humanity and its allies, the protagonist and his or her entourage set out to scour the nearby (well, give or take a couple of million light years) Andromeda galaxy or new planets to settle on. How this is achieved remains to be explained, but the presence of familiar weapons and gear in promotional materials suggests not much time has passed, and ergo, that the Milky Way's civilisations have bridged the gulf quickly.
Another possible explanation for the reappearance of old tech is that the player and his or her allies have spent hundreds of years in stasis aboard a conventional spacecraft. According to the Mass Effect Wiki, a Citadel starship can travel around 15 light years in Zk hours. Assuming the ship leaves for Andromeda around the close of Mass Effect 3, this would place the events of the game in the 27th century.
AND WE'RE DEFINITELY NOT PLAYING AS SHEPARD?
Nope. The protagonist of Mass Effect: Andromeda has yet to be officially named, but Shepard is long gone. There are a few clues about the new lead's identity. Where Shepard began the original Mass Effect as something of a celebrity - an acclaimed warrior, and humanity's top candidate for the job of Citadel Spectre - the newcomer will be a relative unknown, though very capable and equipped with their very own ship. The sight of the N7 logo on the uniform from the first trailer isn't, BioWare suggests, necessarily proof that you'll play a veteran of Earth's legendary special forces unit - though that's a possibility. It was apparently included partly for the sake of establishing a symbolic through-line with the original trilogy.
Redditors have gleaned a few further hints about Andromeda's poster child from the trailers. A dogtag bearing the word "Ryder" or "Rider" is just about visible on a console in the last N7 Day video - a teasing touch that recalls the choice of Johnny Cash's Ghost Riders in the Sky for the announcement video. BioWare's Yanick Roy claims there are "very good reasons" that this song was picked to introduce the game. One explanation could be that BioWare will cultivate a sort of Wild Western frontier ethos to match the focus on exploration (more anon). A more striking possibility is that Andromeda's lead is named in honour of Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, much as Commander Shepard is a tribute to the first American man in space, Alan Shepard.
Whoever he or she proves to be, the character will ultimately lead efforts to explore and colonise the Andromeda galaxy - perhaps as part of the ARKCON pathfinder initiative, logos for which appear on Mass Effect merchandise tweeted by BioWare. The ARKCON logo resembles a giant space structure, possibly a warp gate of some description, from one of Andromeda's concept artworks.
SO IS THIS AN EXPLORATION-DRIVEN GAME, LIKE DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION?
"Exploration" is the keyword, yes, and the latest Dragon Age is indeed an influence, though far from the only or most important one. Partly, it's a question of building on a technological investment: Andromeda runs on the same, extensively tweaked Frostbite game engine that permitted the creation of vast, complex landscapes for the acclaimed Inquisition. "We've said the next Mass Effect uses some of the technology from DAI," BioWare's general manager Aaryn Flynn observed on NeoGAF in January 2015. "We've been enjoying building larger areas that you can explore with less friction, so that'll be there as well."
An official blogpost also lingers over what you can learn just by looking at the landscape, with "Lived-in worlds that tell their own stories... Whether it's shattered doorways and the scars of battle, or [structures] overgrown with moss." And the exact nature of these playscapes? Well, going by concept artworks, you can expect forbidding ice fields, low gravity planets with chunks of asteroid hovering near the surface, "garden worlds" patrolled by frilled living blimps, and cave systems punctured by creepy pyramid structures.
There will be new civilisations, needless to say, and their architecture will reflect their general outlook. One race resides in graceful saucer-like structures, jutting from the midst of a foaming waterfall. There's also a space habitat that's deliberately redolent of the first game's Citadel, a network of picturesque white walkways and greenery, built around a towering hub structure and sheltered from the void by an enormous image of a sunny sky.
It's not just about scale. According to a roundtable discussion during one developer livestream, BioWare is also working to collapse the familiar RPG barrier between town or mostly cosmetic environments and the challenges of the open road. There won't, it's suggested, be spaces in which literally all you do is soak up the scenery - everything flows together believably, a claim that hints at seamless technical transitions between areas. You can expect less of a break between activities like inventory management and exploration. There will be tools that allow some of these tasks to be performed without opening a traditional menu - for example, one concept artwork shows a character mulling over a wrist-mounted holographic projection of a planet's surface.
Last but not least, it's hinted that outer space will be a playable environment - the idea, says BioWare Montreal's Yanick Roy, is to, "Take space as a thing, and turn it into a place". Not quite confirmation that Andromeda is out for Elite's crown, no, but reasonable evidence that you'll do more in this game than merely guide a little starship model around a boiled-down Galactic Map.
HOW HAS THE COMBAT CHANGED?
Resettling beat-up civilisations might be the crux of Andromeda's plot, but fear not, Renegade players, because, to quote producer Mike Gamble, "There's a lot of opportunities to shoot guys squarely in the face". The new game's combat doesn't appear to be a massive departure from that of the first three games: you'll once again call upon a mixture of guns (including pistol and rifle-type weapons), special "Biotic" abilities and personal shields. You'll still go into most fights with a squad of upgradeable companions at your back, and yes, you'll still get to skewer people with pop-out Omni-blades.
Andromeda's gunplay appears to be modelled primarily on Mass Effect J's snappy flamboyance, but in terms of tactical decision-making, the new game may echo the original Mass Effect's more deliberate role-playing style. As Aaryn Flynn put it to Ars Technica in June 2015, "I think we've learned a few lessons around ensuring that combat experience has really nice role-playing elements to it, things you can do that offer progression and offer choice in how you play the experience."
As regards crazy new tricks, the addition of a jetpack - which presumably isn't available straight away - should take the emphasis off cover, especially if enemies are similarly equipped. Some Mass Effect fans feel the series has moved too far in the direction of Gears of War, with most battles won by hunkering down and waiting for foes to expose themselves. Let's see you pull that off in the face of a full-on falcon dive.
WHAT ROLE DOES THE NEW MAKO VEHICLE PLAY?
A considerable one. Andromeda's planets are huge - exactly how huge has yet to be specified, but BioWare says you'll be able to spend "hours" roving about, so having a chunky all-terrain buggy at your disposal is a definite boon. As with Mass Effect 1, there may also be planets that aren't completely safe for on-foot exploration - one video includes brief footage of a blackened rocky plain, gouged by massive fire tornadoes. For all that, the developer's top brass have emphasised that you aren't required to use the Mako - it's just another tool in your arsenal. You may, in fact, find it easier to spot side missions, Easter eggs, resources and the like if you aren't hurtling around like a Batmobile out of hell.
When you do slip behind the wheel, however, expect a vastly improved driving experience. We can say this with some confidence, even without hands-on time, because BioWare's choice of the Frostbite Engine means that it has access to driving systems and knowhow from the Need for Speed series. 2015's instalment of the famously uneven racing franchise wasn't a GOTY contender by any stretch, but next to the original Mako - which handles like a toy car on the end of a fishing line - it's practically Forza. BioWare can also build on what it learned developing Mass Effect 2s comparatively responsive Hammerhead hovertank, a vehicle that's not so much a "feature enhancement" as a sort of drivable apology.
Unlike its predecessor, the new Mako doesn't appear to have a turret gun - it can be customised, but BioWare has yet to reveal whether this extends to mounted weaponry. This may reflect the plot theme of making contact with the races of a new galaxy - pulling up to the doorstep in a six-wheeled howitzer isn't the best way to say "we come in peace", especially if you accidentally noseplant a local dignitary.
It could also be a trade-off to ensure that players don't abuse the newly open and cohesive world design. What's the point, after all, of slapping down a level-20 Thresher Maw to serve as a late-game side objective, as with Inquisition's optional dragon battles, if complete greenhorns are able to blow it up from afar?