How Andromeda Will Combine Elements From The Mass Effect Trilogy

Mass Effect Andromeda is still a good ways off, but that's not keeping the team at BioWare Montreal from sharing quite a few details as of late. Moving forward with the new game, it sounds like the team is trying to strike a balance between elements from the original trilogy while simultaneously doing something new.

In speaking with the team over at Gameinformer, Mass Effect Andromeda producer Fabrice Condominas said that, after three games in the original trilogy and a boatload of player feedback, the team is looking to take elements they know players love from the first three Mass Effect games and combine them into a brand new sci-fi epic.

There are plenty of things to love in the Mass Effect series, but then there have also been things like needlessly tedious tasks and waiting in elevators for unreasonably long periods of time. Also, each of the Mass Effect games stand out from the pack in different regards. As Condominas points out, the original Mass Effect, while the least refined of the lot, had an extremely deep narrative and character arc that drew players into the game. While the actual gameplay itself only improved over the years, some would argue that the story was at its strongest in that original outing.

Conversely, while the moment to moment gameplay and massive set pieces are high points for Mass Effect 3, the characters and story, some would argue, were perhaps not as strong.

So what Condominas is talking about is a melding of the two versions of Mass Effect, offering story and character depth on par with the best the series has to offer and action of the same caliber. Obviously, there's no way of telling if the BioWare squad will actually be able to achieve this goal until Andromeda finally launches.

Condominas continues by discussing how much the games industry has changed since the launch of Mass Effect 3, and how those changes have to be taken into account, too. While the most recent Mass Effect isn't that far in our rearview mirrors at this point, Condominas explains that players expect certain things out of their games these days and that Andromeda needs to deliver in that regard. He also mentions that the BioWare team did a lot of learning thanks to the multiplayer options from Mass Effect 3, and the idea of a beefier, more engaging offering in that department certainly has us intrigued.

So what do you think, readers? Does Andromeda sound like it's shaping up to be a "greatest hits" of elements from Mass Effect, or were you hoping for something wholly different from this next offering? Let us know in the comments below.