9 Things We Want to See In Mass Effect: Andromeda

As any Mass Effect fan will know, last week heralded our first taste of Mass Effect: Andromeda in the flesh when in-game footage debuted at the PS Pro conference. What we got was a carefully-curated slice of work: light on gameplay, but pretty nonetheless. It showed off the innards of a space structure of sorts, replete with blue hues and a nifty jetpack. The camera offered us a wide-angle view of the scene at hand; a camera that stuck far less tightly to the player than in previous Mass Effect titles. Will a sense of scale and freedom be more important to BioWare this time around? Time will tell. Beyond beautiful lighting and a short cutscene though, the demo didn't show much else. N7 Day promises a bigger reveal in November, but for the time being, here's what we're hoping to see when the full game lands in March. 1) Choices That Matter 2015’s standout RPG, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, did one thing better than any other game in recent memory: it asked that you make morally ambiguous choices that were not black or white, but grey. In its large, extravagant world of dwarves, taverns, beer-slugging and sword fighting, the choices you made caused a butterfly effect that wasn’t clear until many hours later. For Andromeda, I hope a similar level of complexity - and subtlety - prevails. Mass Effect 1 and 2 helped pioneer branching dialogue choices, but Andromeda needs to streak past that, creating organic, natural situations where you aren't simply good or bad but somewhere in between. The suicide salvo of Mass Effect 2 demonstrated how your actions can matter late in the game, and I can only hope that Andromeda layers on the moral ambiguity. 2) A Story, First And Foremost Why is there such an obsession with multiplayer? I don’t understand why it needs to be shoehorned into every game we play — especially one of this ilk. The story of Shepherd - and now the Ryders - is about exploration, the delight of discovery and untold tales of a galaxy far, far away… The series has never done multiplayer well, frankly, and it’s always seemed like a concession to the suits upstairs rather than a real addition to improve the single player experience. More galling than that, though, is the way Mass Effect 3 handled the synthesis of the two, initially forcing you to take part in its online modes in order to access all the endings in the campaign proper (until the Extended Cut DLC landed, anyways). For those who didn’t want to — or didn’t have an internet connection — things became a lot trickier. In Andromeda, let’s hope for multiplayer that actually makes sense within the framework of the story. Or none at all. 3) New Races And The Return Of Old Ones Since we’re leaving the Milky Way behind and moving to Andromeda, some thousands of years after the original trilogy, it’s more than likely we’ll get new races, stories and intergalactic intrigue. But what will they look like? What will their backstories be? And how many familiar races will re-appear? Favourites like the Korgan and the Asari made the original trilogy all the more memorable, and a great deal of the story focused on the political wrangling between factions and the innate distrust of different species. I expect Ryder to be again at the heart of political conflict across the galaxy, but it'll be interesting to see how Bioware juggles new stories while still offering up fan service in the form of familiar faces. Too many names and faces could become confusing, so there's an interesting balancing act at work. 4) Better Map Mini-games There’s no way of telling whether the galaxy map from Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3 will even make a reappearance in Andromeda, but if does, I hope it’s stuffed with cool mini-games. It's no secret that mining materials in Mass Effect 3 got old, even if the bass-y oeuvre that signalled the arrival of the Reapers was scary the first few times. This time around, I want something a little more interesting, and the signs from BioWare are positive so far. We’re hearing that the map is going to be four times bigger and will involve resource gathering and base building. Metal Gear Solid V, anyone? There’s a good bet some sort of work will be done in the galaxy map. Whether it’s interesting or not, time will tell, but with titles like No Man's Sky plunging us into an intergalactic maze of planets and solar systems, the pressure is one to deliver something altogether more interactive this time around. 5) Exploration You were supposed to be a galactic explorer in the Mass Effect trilogy, but what you were really exploring was a big 2D map and a series of linear 3D levels stitched together by the same needlework. In Andromeda, it’s time to be set free — I want to explore! And with a jetpack and a camera that canvases a wider arc, I sense that BioWare feels the same way. Whether it’ll involve Witcher levels of exploration remains to be seen, but here’s hoping that we get a sandbox to nosey around each and every time our ship lands on a new rock. After all, the beauty of these games is often the emergent moments discovering an oddity off the beaten track, and in Andromeda, there should be a legion of small moments lying in wait. 6) More Hubs Ah, the Citadel. Humanity’s presidential outpost, it's a towering monolith that houses all manner of secrets, but looking back, I still remember those darned elevator rides best. This time around, it’d be nice to get more hubs to explore - with a variety of flavours - on different planets. A game like The Technomancer demonstrated the value of open-world hubs, though it also illustrated what can go wrong: dry-as-dishwater NPCs and a litany of fetch quests pulling you towards umpteen loading times. With the might of current-gen consoles and PCs at its disposal, the bar for Andromeda couldn't be higher. I got the sense the Citadel was always constrained by the sheer lack of computing power behind it, but now Bioware has the opportunity to make their open-world hubs soar. Just imagine a succession of hubs filled with different faces, stories and quests dotted across the galaxy - without endless loading times. One can dream, right?. 7) A Mako That’s Fun To Drive Vehicles have a dubious history in the Mass Effect franchise. Neither the Mako 1.0 nor The Hammerhead really ever felt fun to pilot, and with exploration likely to be front and centre in Andromeda, we need a Mako that does the series justice. I want something that's a joy to toss around but also has the right amount of heft; a Mako that makes me feel like Armstrong behind the wheel as he charts a course across untapped rock. More importantly, I want to feel empowered. Imagine being able to plot a course across uncharted territory, exit the vehicle where you please and scope out new ground? There's the opportunity for a genuine sense of discovery that I've never truly felt in the series before. 8) Gunplay That Packs Variety The Mass Effect trilogy is rightly revered, but it never truly nailed the art of gunplay. Yes, it had half-hearted nods to customization and moments where you would run, gun, and jump for cover, but gunplay took on a pretty predictable flavour after a few hours. This time around, I’m hoping bigger levels will breed more emergent gameplay, and the room to really experiment with different play styles. How about a touch of stealth, or action, or a combination of the two? I'd also like to see squad controls and general AI improved as well. The slow-down powers of the original trilogy needs some work, but could be just the tonic needed to complement the gun play. Nail the combat, and Bioware will be sitting pretty. 9) DLC Of Value I’m not a fan of DLC at the best of times, but I understand it’s a necessary component of the commercial process. Games are expensive to make, and if you’re going to eke out value from your customer base, why not prolong the experience as much as possible? But fan service needs weight to it, and dare I say it, BioWare should ape the model CD Projekt Red established with Witcher 3: two DLC packs that offered a ton of gameplay for a very good price. Lair of the Shadow Broker was a decent effort, and an illustration of DLC done well. My only fear is that we'll get a 2-hour jaunt through recycled locations with a new weapon or two. Give me more meat and I'll be happy.