Mass Effect: Andromeda is a getting some significant press coverage over at Game Informer right now, and while the game's existence is no longer in doubt, major questions still surround it. For instance, we still don't even know exactly how the game will play like concerning its growth from Mass Effect 3. Dragon Age saw a significant evolution from Dragon Age 2 to Dragon Age: Inquisition, so it stands to reason that Andromeda is looking at a similar jump.
Game Informer has gained a few insights in speaking with Andromeda's producer Fabrice Condominas, and the big takeaway is that the team looked carefully at Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode for inspiration when creating the game. Here's a breakdown of Condominas' primary points:
- The team is trying to ingrain an unpredictability element through the added with jump mechanic that can be used to traverse environments and create unique opportunities for attack more quickly.
- Environments will have an added sense of verticality which Condominas says can expand what you can do with cover mechanics (being able to jump above cover, below cover and have different layers of it).
- Enemy spawning has also been re-worked regarding their direction from you. Originally, enemies would only spawn ahead of you, as levels were predominantly a linear affair. Now they can spawn all over, with the idea that the momentum of the action can be better maintained.
- Destructible environments will create opportunities for emergent gameplay, so using your weapons to damage an enemy is no longer your only option directly.
- BioWare is trying to return to the RPG depth of ME1 and combine it with the action of ME3. The developers are very conscious of how watered down the RPG systems became as the original trilogy evolved, but as Dragon Age: Inquisition showed, BioWare is not afraid to go back to more complex roots.
So there you have it; Mass Effect: Andromeda sounds like it will use its more open environments to create different opportunities and more chaotic action. We can only hope that chaotic does not translate to confusion, but we will see for sure when Mass Effect: Andromeda releases next March.
Source: [Game Informer]
