Mass Effect: Andromeda Will Have Two Main Characters, Here's Who They Are

Mass Effect Andromeda
(Image credit: BioWare)

A lot of gamers are still attached to Commander Shepard from the original Mass Effect trilogy. The male/female protagonist resonated quite strongly with the gaming community. Well, Mass Effect: Andromeda is doing something a little different by having two main characters, a brother and sister.

Mac Walters, the creative lead on Mass Effect: Andromeda at BioWare, explained to PlayStation Access...

"They both exist in the game world at the same time. If you're playing as the female Ryder, your brother is out there somewhere in the universe."

Electronic Arts and BioWare were on hand at the recent PlayStation Meeting event held in New York this past week, where Sony unveiled the new PS4 Slim and the PS4 Pro. The two console SKUs will arrive this November; but hardware announcements weren't the only thing on hand. Mass Effect: Andromeda was also showcased where they talked more about the game, including the main character(s), Ryder.

The brother and sister duo will allow players to choose between one or the other to play as throughout the main game. If you choose to play as the brother Ryder, your sister will be controlled by the NPC. If you choose to play as the sister Ryder, your brother will be controlled by the NPC.

Walters also mentions that the Ryder siblings' father is also out there, too. Whether or not you'll actually encounter him throughout the gameplay was not mentioned, and whether or not he plays a significant part in the story also went without mentioning, but he at least exists within the Mass Effect universe.

The rest of the conversation deviated from the protagonist(s) and story and honed in on the game's use of HDR filters and how they've improved the overall in-engine assets thanks to Mass Effect: Andromeda running on DICE's coveted Frostbite 3 game engine.

Walters' comments were attached to a brief interview that PlayStation Access posted up over on their YouTube channel, which you can view below.

This at least gives us a little bit more insight into the whole main character situation and what we can somewhat expect from the Ryder siblings.

Some people in the comment section in one of the Mass Effect: Andromeda videos pined for BioWare to make the other NPCs controllable by other players, giving the game's campaign a bit of a co-op feeling to it. It's actually not that bad a suggestion... being able to grab a controller and play as the teammates running around on the planet surface alongside the brother/sister Ryder could prove to be fun, but that doesn't seem like an option that's on the table for the upcoming game.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.