MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA
Goodbye Shepard, hello Ryder. Ben Tyrer flies out to Bioware Montreal, the home of Mass Effect Andromeda, to play the role-player that rips up the rulebook for both the series and the genre as a whole
Yes, we’ve played it. Bioware Montreal opens its doors to OPM, letting us explore the space-set RPG’s newest stars. (Screams were heard.)
At the heart of sci-fi saga Mass Effect is humanity’s never-ending struggle for survival. In the original trilogy, the threat to the species is the Reapers, an ancient race of synthetic machines which wipes out civilization every 50,000 years. Yet for this all-new generation of Mass Effect, the danger is existential. Mankind yearns for a new home, and you’re one of 100,000 people willing to say goodbye to the Milky Way in the hope of finding another inhabitable speck in the universe. The series’ hallmarks – action, consequences, and the chance to discover new planets – are all here, but don’t mistake this for a simple retread. Bioware’s taking cues from its stars, and is pushing the space-faring series into new territories.
Let’s be clear: this is not a follow-up to Mass Effect 3. It may start in 2185, during the events of the original trilogy, but the war with the Reapers has nothing to do with your exodus. Instead, you’re slipping into the spacesuit of the Pathfinder to become a member of the Andromeda Initiative; a combined effort between Milky Way races to push further into the universe.
“We didn’t want to make this a story about running away from the Reapers,” says creative director Mac Walters of the story’s origin, “because then there is a singular story for everybody to get on an Ark. Instead, what we wanted it to be was about people who are going for curiosity. They’re going for adventure.”
RYDE’ LOAD
Waking up 600 years later on the Ark Hyperion – a huge vessel that
carries you and other pioneers across the galaxies – you’ll choose to play as one of sibling duo Scott and Sarah (or whatever you want to call them) Ryder. Unlike the previous games in the series, the duo will be different characters, so should you plump for Sarah, Scott will still be a presence in the world and vice versa. Producer Michael Gamble explains: “There are many times where that relationship between you guys is important in the story. That said, we’re not going to make an entirely different experience based on brother or sister; it’s going to be a fairly similar experience.”
Our exclusive sneak peek of the campaign in action casts us as Scott in his first mission in the Andromeda galaxy: a trip down to the snappily-monikered Habitat 7. Any optimism about the state of our new galactic residence is dashed within seconds when the shuttle taking Ryder and his squad to the stormy planet explodes in the air. Ryder and his buddy Liam black out, then later wake up on the hostile surface.
RYDER’S IN THE STORM
Habitat 7 is, bluntly, hell. A desolate place where jagged rocks hang in the sky, thunder crashes all around and the surroundings are greyer than a night out in Coventry. This gloomy place also gives us our first glimpse of how environmental hazards will help build some truly memorable alien planets. As Ryder and Liam pick their way across a narrow mountain path (chatting throughout their trek to help fill in some story blanks) they encounter a lightning hotspot. The only way through involves charging head-first through the area, splashing through puddles while dodging the deadly strikes. As far as opening missions go, this is already a zinger.
Once we’ve reached a place of safety – a sheltered cave – Ryder whips out his scanner and starts surveying the area. It’s a reminder that our mission is scientific rather than militaristic. Producer Fabrice Condominas explains how critical it was to bring this new piece of equipment to the series: “It’s the centrepiece of all the exploration mechanisms. You have no clue where you are. You don’t understand anything that is going on. So the scanner’s your bridge between ignorance and knowledge. This is how you collect a number of things you’ll analyse after the mission to retrieve information.”
See, rather than tell you everything up front, Bioware wants you to learn about the world at the same time as Ryder, leading to a genuine sense of discovery. It’s why, when a squad of squid-esque Remnant aliens floated past us during our PS4 Pro reveal event demo, an NPC piped up with advice: “They don’t get nasty unless you get too close.” Both you and Ryder are learning the rules for this world as you go along. No wonder the moment we meet a Kett Chosen, a foreboding bipedal alien patrolling Habitat 7, is nerve-shredding. This is a true first contact situation, but are they
“THERE ARE TIMES WHEN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RYDERS IS KEY.”
friend or foe? The answer to that question will have to wait, as our advance glimpse into the game’s opening ends…
Luckily our dive into Andromeda is just getting started. We’re next whisked to a different demo further into the game, where Ryder’s battling an alien menace (Bioware has asked us not to reveal the race in question to avoid spoilers) in a large industrial area. Taking cover’s now an automatic, button-free process, but the biggest change since Mass Effect 3 is the addition of jumping: thrusters on the back of Ryder’s suit enable us to leap sizeable distances. As a result, Ryder’s able to zip to a higher level and smoothly slide into cover in one fluid motion when it all kicks off.
JUMP START
Jumping’s not just there to help reach higher ledges, either. Hitting jump then melée sees Ryder smash into the ground with devastating force, while squeezing p in the air lets Ryder hover and shoot, raining down bullets from the sky like an extremely lethal fly. Even the trusty combat roll of the past is gone – it’s been replaced with a thruster dash that allows Ryder to slide away from danger with graceful ease. Whereas combat in the original trilogy was about using cover to outsmart the enemy, here it’s about using speed and height to leap over
“RYDER CAN HOVER IN THE AIR AND RAIN DOWN BULLETS FROM ABOVE.”
foes, menacing them from above or quickly flanking them before they can react to your gymnastics.
The other major facet of this limber fighting model? Destruction. We’re not talking about Battlefield-levels of carnage, but destructible cover will force you to adapt to evolving combat scenarios more than in the original trilogy. “In some levels, if you play at a really hard difficulty, you can’t progress if you don’t actively change the combat layout to force the enemy to move,” warns Condominas, pointing at the need to destroy specific barricades in order to funnel your foes.
Consequently, the action we see in single-player is faster than a Salarian’s synapses, which explains why Bioware’s decided to ease up on some of the squad ordering functionality from the previous games. You’ll still be able to order your teammates into specific positions, but Condominas tells us that the studio’s consciously moved away from the old strategy game elements. “You don’t pause the game, or target enemies specifically. You assign your squad to positions in real-time; that’s the main thing.”
It might sound like a big step back on paper, but it certainly doesn’t look like one in action. We’ll still get to assign squad loadouts before missions, but the reduction in micromanagement during combat makes the action far more aggressive and exciting. Witnessing Ryder jetpack-dash over the screen, drawing out fire and unleashing all manner of different, flashy moves, we can’t help but think back to Platinum’s sublime PS3 shooter Vanquish.
UNKNOWN HORIZONS
Our final taste of Andromeda’s campaign comes in the form of Elaaden, a sweltering desert planet where the heat can fry us in an instant. It’s one of the larger “story planets” where the bulk of exploration takes place. “We don’t want to confuse people and say this is a sandbox experience,” says Walters. “When you land, there’s a central area you visit where you can talk to people and get a sense of what this planet and its story is about.” Exploring these planets isn’t mandatory beyond the critical path missions, but they function as the connective tissue where the curious can unpick Andromeda’s secrets. They’re also the location for one of Andromeda’s main features: the rover.
Roll forward your new ride: the Nomad. It speeds across the planet’s surface at a brilliant pace, and in a neat trick doubles up as makeshift cover when you run into hostile forces. The Nomad’s also the best way past certain environmental hazards, such as Elaaden’s extreme heat, but it isn’t indestructible. Fail to make use of the shade’s cooler temperatures and your ride might just go up in flames.
Yet for all the changes and refined ideas, the most surprising shakeup involves the dialogue options. The series’ trademark Paragon and
“WATCHING THE COMBAT IN FULL FLOW, WE CAN’T HELP BUT THINK OF VANQUISH.”
Renegade points system has been scrapped, replaced by a behind-thescenes tweak that producer Gamble promises will offer subtler and more realistic conversations. “We do want to give players a sense of familiarity with the [dialogue] wheel, but we’re still figuring all that stuff out, which is why we’re not talking about it yet,” he teases. “But it’s a much stronger system and it doesn’t shoehorn players. It’ll let people play how they want, instead of having to choose between extremes.”
Watching the action may be exciting, but getting to play it is exhilarating. After our hands-off tour of the campaign, Bioware boots up the returning co-operative multiplayer mode and hands us the pad. The setup should be familiar to Mass Effect 3 veterans: waves of increasingly difficult enemies attack across a series of rounds, with each stage home to a different objective such as eliminating a set enemy inside a given time limit.
The multiplayer loadout screen offers few surprises for returning players. Between the beginner-friendly Soldier, whose powers focus on offensive capabilities such as the Frag Grenade and Concussive Shot, and the biotic powers of the Adept, whose stronger mental powers mask their fragility, we’re in familiar territory. With others plumping for those two, we select the defensive-minded Sentinel class, which has three key powers. Throw and Energy Drain return, letting us hurl enemies and steal their shield power, yet it’s Barricade that intrigues us the most: a new skill that gives us the ability to plant temporary cover.
M-8S RATES
We’re in a compact industrial base, with cramped rooms towards the centre of the map and an open exterior with higher ledges offering some verticality. Even with the introduction of automatic lock-to-cover and the need to jump up to reach key areas, diving in feels like greeting an old friend – especially considering we’re cradling a trusty M-8 Avenger rifle. By setting Andromeda’s jumpingoff point between the first two games, Bioware’s neatly ensured that equipment and weapons are familiar, despite the meat of the game being set 600 years after Shepard’s story.
The first couple of waves give us time to acclimatise, but wave three shakes us out of our comfort zone. Enemies seem to swarm around every corner, flanking quickly and efficiently. It’s here where the flexibility of the
new combat system becomes more and more useful, as we juggle jumping melée attacks, thruster-dashes-into-cover and hover-gunning moves. Barricade instantly becomes our favourite ability, and not just because its bright orange glow when deployed screams Tron. Our insta-cover’s wide enough for more than one, so struggling teammates soon hunker down next to us to replenish shields.
Again, that Vanquish comparison springs to the front of our minds. We came to Bioware expecting to be drooling over the new worlds on show – and indeed, we do just that – but we didn’t consider we’d find ourselves just as excited about hurtling around these planets’ combat arenas fast enough to leave us wheezing and exhausted. RPG purists may be unconvinced by the promise of more action focus, but we see little cause for concern. (To put it in terms Bioware followers will be most familiar with: on this evidence, Andromeda isn’t likely to be the Dragon Age II to the original trilogy’s Dragon Age Origins.)
THREE’S COMPANY
Which is reassuring, given the changes behind the scenes. The Montreal team is taking the lead for the first time, and Montreal studio head Yanick Roy explains how the mixture of old and new blood in the development team is shaping the game. “The people we’ve got have been involved in ME2 and ME3, and the people we’ve added have been franchise fans, so there’s an interesting dynamic of people with different experiences.”
“WE’RE HURTLING AROUND THE COMBAT ARENAS FAST ENOUGH TO FEEL EXHAUSTED.”
If the dream of a fan is to work on something they love, it can be a double-edged sword, as Condominas quickly reveals that people don’t want the game’s story twists ruined. “This is the only time in my life where I’ve worked at a company where developers are trying to actively avoid meetings in order to not be spoiled,” he laughs. And there are a lot of meetings to dodge for those spoiler-averse workers: Bioware’s Edmonton and Austin studios are also involved with the development, necessitating much back and forth, with the Edmonton team (which developed the original trilogy) so deeply ingrained with production that the bandwidth usage between Edmonton and Montreal is the highest of all of EA’s developers.
The ambition of these three studios is anything but humble. Bioware wants Andromeda fans to feel at home in a dangerous, alien place where the environment will kill you and the firefights will ask more of you than ever before. Five years after the original trilogy wrapped up, Mass Effect Andromeda’s reaching for the stars. And whether you’re preparing to play on PS4 or with enhanced graphics on PS4 Pro, you shouldn’t bet against this becoming a galaxy-beating RPG.