Last week we learned that while not all races from the original Mass Effect trilogy will feature in the incoming Andromeda, some of them might appear in future games. Bioware has now revealed new information about the game's multiplayer—how it works and how it'll be tied to the single player campaign.
Unlike Dragon Age: Inquisition, Andromeda's multiplayer will not be entirely independent from its single player portion however also won't impact solo play in the same way ME3 did. Speaking to Game Informer, Bioware's Ian Frazier suggests it'll fall somewhere in the middle of the two extremes, and that the missions funds you obtain in multiplayer have "tendrils going out into the rest of the game."
"You will have possibilities to send teams to complete kind of side missions, or to do it yourself in multiplayer. That’s the idea," he adds, suggesting players should never feel forced to play multiplayer. "If you feel cheated, we’ve done something wrong."
Logistically, Andromeda's multiplayer also does more to keep players moving, forcing more attacking strategies. Enemies boast specific traits that allow for less duck and cover and more open battling, while the new jetpacks make clambering across the map a lot less laboured.
"The first thing everyone will notice is how dynamic it is," the game's producer Fabrice Condominas tells GI. "Everything is more fluid, fast-paced, there’s a lot of action going on. The controls are also more responsive. All of that is on purpose; we really wanted to increase the dynamism and how accessible it is while retaining the depth and going more into layers."
To make things more interesting still, Andromeda sees the return of blind card packs—meaning new weapons, character kits and items are obtained by luck. Packs require in-game currency which be earned either by playing or parting with real life money.
"If you don’t want to be at the mercy of the random number generator for the cards, you’re still at the mercy of what’s in the store right now, but it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s the Black Widow and I really want it!'" says Frazier. "You can buy them with real-world money if you want to, but again, nothing requires that."
Mass Effect: Andromeda is due at some point in March, 2017. More information is expected to be teased at the Game Awards on December 1, but until then here's everything we know so far.
