Cognition Dissemination: What’s Happening with Mass Effect: Andromeda?

After seeing a slow trickle of info drop intermittently over the last couple of years, E3 2016 was anticipated by the fanbase to be the place for Mass Effect: Andromeda’s full unveil. Until then, EA had only provided minor sneak peaks at Bioware’s newest entry in the franchise, one that will serve as a semi-restart in terms of its story and characters. While divisiveness existed towards the later installments of the ME series, particularly regarding Mass Effect 2 and 3’s actionized gameplay and some narrative choices, a large, vocal subset of them have thoroughly enjoyed each title. That’s why this was by far the main attraction for the EA Play Conference.

You don’t need me to tell you at this point that it didn’t come close to delivering on those expectations. EA’s conference overall ended up being a bigger waste of potential than last year’s, thanks to spending far too much time on talking heads and sports events, alongside a confusing presentation. Alongside the Star Wars presentation which showed nothing special outside three seconds of footage from Visceral’s upcoming game, the most discussed aspect was how Andromeda still hasn’t been fully unveiled. Last year’s teaser trailer seemed to be a small preview for the big unveil that would happen later in the year, but it’s peculiar how this year’s preview didn’t amount to anything near as much as people expected after twelve months.

Granted, it’s not as if we didn’t learn anything, specifically through details the development team provided to the press and through streams after the conference. Instead of players travelling with a team of already-hardened mercenaries, Andromeda will star untested heroes who’ve yet to prove themselves. The developers want to establish how this isn’t Mass Effect 4, and want to tell this particular story from a different perspective. They also want its tale to be atypical for one starring space marines, meaning this game’s protagonist won’t know as much as Commander Shepard off the bat.

The game will be set long after the original trilogy, with a protagonist who’s referred to as “Ryder.” While callbacks to the original trilogy will exist, they’ll be few and far between; and you definitely shouldn’t expect any returning characters. This new team has been tasked with finding a new planet for humanity to inhabit, most of which will be inexperienced as far as venturing to other planets is concerned. They’ll be travelling on the Tempest, a ship that’s big enough to transport a team, but small enough to land on even the smallest planets. It was also previously announced that players will be able to travel around on those planets using Mako, a customizable transportation buggy they’re promising won’t be as cumbersome to use as it was in the first ME title.

By the way, the female character seen at the end of EA’s E3 video was indeed the default female Ryder, who will be the marketing focus. Though players will still be given the option to choose their gender, this is a nice twist which helps show how serious they are about this game being a different kind of sci-fi outer space tale. It’s also confirmed that Ryder’s family will be involved somehow, though who that will be and the differences this will have depending on the chosen gender are, of course, currently unknown.

We also know from the leaked alpha footage that battles will be more dynamic and dramatic, with playable characters and enemies being capable of new maneuvers and abilities. They might need those to get around some larger enemies. The previously mentioned EA video also shows some of this, but clearly not as much as people wanted at this stage.

With it being around four-and-a-half years since ME3 released, it’s difficult to imagine what’s happening behind the scenes with Andromeda. The Bioware department working on this had a fair amount of people leave the company for employment elsewhere in the last year or so (watch out for the automatically playing video on that site), which raises the question of how its internal corporate and development cultures are faring. While they’ve found replacements for those lost staffers in the meantime, game development companies don’t usually have so many departures right behind each other during a game’s development. If there’s something awry, no one has confirmed anything.

I’m not the only one who concluded this, by the way, as former lead animator Jonathan Cooper formed a similar hypothesis after its E3 showing. While crafting several large planets for players explore with modern technology takes a lot of time and effort, it’s nonetheless peculiar how we’ve seen so little for a game that’s been in development for around three years. That especially applies when it’s supposedly in the final stretch of the development period.

It was mentioned at E3 that further info will be provided this fall, but the questions above are still worth asking. Andromeda was originally confirmed for a holiday 2016 release when it was teased during E3 2015, but it was delayed until Q1 2017 earlier this year. It was subsequently clarified at E3 that the date changed to “early 2017,” which includes the first six months of next year, meaning it could potentially release outside this fiscal year (which ends on March 31st, 2017). We’ll learn more when it’s revealed this fall, where it should be easier to ballpark a release timeframe depending on how early this fall it’s shown. If they save it for, say, N7 day (November 7th), don’t expect it for a little while.