Mass Effect Andromeda to push the boundaries of the Frostbite engine

Up until now, Bioware has been really quiet about Mass Effect Andromeda while they keep on releasing various teases, but recently they actually gave away some hard intel on their next anticipated game.

Bioware was mostly talking about technical stuff and where inspiration comes from,but it is still more than nothing. An interview with Bioware's creative director, Mac Walters, in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine they revealed some interesting things. The development of Mass Effect Andromeda has forced the team to push the boundaries of what the Frostbite engine can do to make the able to make the character animations as great as possible to be able to connect with the players on an even deeper level.

"We’re pushing the boundaries of what Frostbite can do and what Mass Effect can do. The quality of the character animations is at an all-time high for us, and that’s great because it means expressiveness, emotion and a connection with the player."

Walters also revealed something that might come as a surprise, Bioware is looking to keep Mass Effect grounded and close to reality, even though it is a science fiction game set in space filled with a whole lot of aliens and unbelievable things. The team likes to take something real and give it a sci-fi twist,hoping to make the game more realistic and relatable.

"One of the great things about working on Mass Effect is that it’s ground in reality. It would be easy – probably too easy – for us just to go off and do things that are really wacky, that just don't fit in , so we always start from that."

"There are so many amazing things on earth. We’ll look at some images of a glowing cave somewhere in the world and be like, 'That exists? That’s here on Earth?' and then we tweak it a little bit, and now it’s alien, right? Sometimes its just a colour-shift, or we might look at some of the plants hidden in the Amazon that were discovered in the last year, or something like that. We use all that inspiration because you need to balance the relatable with the original."

Well, there it is, Bioware is putting a lot of effort into making the animations as good as they possibly can and they are pushing the limits of Frostbite. They are also, surprisingly enough, grounding everything in reality before giving it a sci-fi twist.

Stay tuned to GameZone for more Mass Effect Andromeda news the closer we get to release, which is scheduled for early 2017 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.