Brin Discusses:
N7 Day Reveal: Mass Effect Andromeda
There’s all kinds of exciting news today for Mass Effect: Andromeda. BioWare have finally released some new information and a new teaser trailer for the latest entry in the Mass Effect saga. Its been a long-time coming, that’s for sure!
The game has been in development for years and fans of the series have been waiting with bated breath for any small tidbits of news (well, some people are understandably soured on the franchise by the still slightly bitter aftertaste of Mass Effect 3) but there hasn’t been very much information forthcoming up to now.
The closure of the BioWare Social Network was also a bit of a personal blow for me (and many others) since I have been a (not very) active member of their forums since the release of my all-time favourite game Knights of the Old Republic (I still long for a proper single-player campaign third entry that’s not an MMO but I think the chances of that are slim to, well, none).
N7 Day was the day fans had marked in their diary’s – where we would finally get some new information on the elusive new entry in this epic science fiction adventure. Here is the trailer – I got goosebumps, seriously!!
What else do we know about the game
The main character in the game is Ryder. You can play either as male Ryder or female Ryder and the two are siblings (twins I think?) so even if you say, pick male Ryder as your protagonist, the female Ryder will still play a role as your sibling in the game (although still not sure how big a role this will be as yet). Bro Ryder is voiced by Tom Taylorson whilst Fryda Wolff lends her vocals to Sis Ryder.
Even more exciting news – it looks as though Clancy Brown (yep, THAT Clancy Brown) plays your father in the game. Man, am I stoked for this. I LOVE Clancy Brown, ever since I first saw him in Highlander so many years ago!! Papa Ryder is called Alec and the siblings are Scott and Sarah (not sure if the names are customizable). You can of course, modify the appearance of your character.
Andromeda is set 600 years after the events of Mass effect 3 and in a completely different galaxy which allows the events of the past trilogy to not have a huge impact on the game itself (the logistics of that would have been a nightmare, to be fair). Your character is part of the Andromeda Initiative and you wake up after being in stasis for over 600 years in a completely new galaxy. This time Humans – and Asari, Krogans, Salarians, Turians (hopefully – no confirmation on their presence as yet) etc. – are the aliens which sounds pretty rad.
My Take
I am (cautiously) optimistic for this game. I wasn’t as disappointed by Mass Effect 3 as some gamers were (although the ending itself was a bit of a damp squib) but it wasn’t my favourite entry either.
I long for the days of the first Mass Effect with its focus on storytelling but with better gameplay and graphics obvs. I enjoy action games as much as the next gamer; but role-playing games are ones I like to sink my teeth into and play for 30 hours straight. BioWare has always been my go-to for this.
The trailer is exciting but it doesn’t show a lot of gameplay which I would have preferred to have seen by now. I’m also a little worried that the focus will be too much on the spectacle that the story will get lost in translation. I really hope that won’t be the case and that lessons have been learned and all that jazz.
Let the countdown commence!!
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