GameInformer has been trickling out info that they’ve gotten from BioWare about their upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda, and recently they threw out a bunch of little factoids that shed some light on the minutia of the game.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Not every species from the original trilogy will be seen in Andromeda. “We’ve designed the IP in such a way that they can all show up,” creative director Mac Walters said. “For hopefully obvious reasons, they’re not all going to show up in the first game.”
- Quests will take place on many different planets, and some will take place across multiple planets. They said that the latter will happen much less often so that players don’t feel like they’re bouncing around, planet to planet all the time.
- Enemies from different races will have different abilities, even if they are the same class.
- The overall tone of the game is apparently lighter than that of Mass Effect 3, according to producer Fabrice Condominas. “I think everybody takes it a bit less seriously in the tone of the dialogue. The characters are different – they’re younger, and you feel that in the tone.”
- Environmental hazards will make your life a bit harder, as some areas will have extreme heat, extreme cold, radiation, and other types of life threatening atmospheres.
- Experience points will not only be used to upgrade Ryder, but also their equipment, like the Nomad or their jetpack.
- Some of the cutscenes will actually give players some control over how they go down. They gave the example of Ryder falling from a great height, and the player being able to guide them down.
- Walters also addressed the people who are afraid that with Andromeda’s huge scope, BioWare won’t be able to keep the story tight. “The key for us has been ensuring that the content is rich and up to BioWare quality standards,” Walters said. “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.”
Those are the big points. If you want to check out the more fun stuff, check out their full article. And for all things Mass Effect Andromeda, keep coming to Hardcore Gamer.
