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‘MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA’: NEWS, RUMORS, AND EVERYTHING WE KNOW

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Legendary role-playing game developer BioWare hasn’t released a game in its Mass Effect series since 2012, which closed the door on the series’ hero, Commander Shepard, in epic fashion. The series’ next chapter, Mass Effect Andromeda, trades in Shepard and the nemeses, the Reapers, for a pair of new heroes and an unfamiliar corner of the universe as players search for humanity’s new home.

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Though BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts have shown a minuscule amount of game footage from Mass Effect: Andromeda, a surprising number of details have been revealed, through both official sources and leaks. If you can’t wait until Mass Effect Andromeda comes out in 2017, then you can read everything there is to know about about the game right here.

In a new world …

The original Mass Effect trilogy featured plenty of planet-hopping and a diverse selection of playable locations, but its story still revolved around Earth. In Mass Effect: Andromeda, this is no longer the case.

Last year, a Reddit user revealed they took part in a survey for the then-untitled fourth Mass Effect game. According to the survey, Andromeda takes place after the events of Commander Shepard’s defense of Earth against the Reapers, at a time when humanity has begun searching for a new planet to call home.Andromeda will follow a new hero named Ryder, according to a tweet from BioWare producer Michael Gamble. Referred to as the “pathfinder,” Ryder is reportedly a novice explorer tasked with venturing into the Andromeda galaxy’s Helius cluster to locate a suitable planet for humanity.

Speaking to Polygon in June, BioWare creative director Mac Walters referred to the original Mass Effect trilogy as a “foundational background” for Andromeda, with “returning species and themes,” but the game would take time to explain these components to newer players, making Ryder’s adventure a good starting point for first-time players.

A next-gen universe for a next-gen franchise

With the power of a new console generation, it appears that Mass Effect: Andromeda will be substantially larger than Mass Effect 3. According to the same survey cited on Reddit, the game world will be more than four times the size of its predecessor, and feature “hundreds of solar systems that are seamlessly connected,” allowing players to fly through space, drive the Mako land vehicle, and venture on foot without noticeable load times. This was later confirmed, at least in part, by studio producer Aaryn Flynn, who told Game Informer back in June that the game would be moving to an open world structure. The same interview also confirmed the name of Ryder’s new ship: the Tempest.

During Sony’s 2016 “PlayStation Meeting,” publisher Bioware Montreal showed a brief portion of the game to show off the visual enhancements of the PlayStation 4 Pro. Electronic Arts later clarified to GameSpot that, while the Pro increase the game’s visual fidelity, Andromeda will be locked at 30 frames per second on both the PS4 and PS4 Pro.

Oh, the humanity!

BioWare is aware that the dialogue options and character development in the first three Mass Effect games could leave players wanting a little more, and the studio is taking steps to ensure that Mass Effect: Andromeda’s story feels more “human.” Speaking to Polygon during E3 2016, creative director Mac Walters said that the team “leaned into the more personal aspect” this time around, and that, though alien races have always played a large part in the Mass Effect series, the story is ultimately viewed “through human” eyes, and Ryder will only be available as a human character — or characters, we should say. BioWare revealed to PlayStation Access in September that the male and female character options for Ryder are actually siblings, and we’ve already seen their father during E3 2014.

Ryder won’t be a cookie-cutter character with a series of pre-picked “choices” to more the story forward. Walters stressed that the team wants “to embrace choice and diversity with what you can do in the game.”

Speaking to IGN during E3 2016, Walters cited the series’ romance and relationship system as an area the team hopes to improve improvement. In the past, the series tied the ability to initiate a romantic relationship with a specific character to completing “loyalty” missions and other key events. “In the past we’ve been very, eh, I’d say somewhat formulaic in the way we presented them,” Walters said at the time. “We’re trying to look at more organic ways to have those relationships evolve.” In Andromeda, the moments that affect Ryder’s chances at love aren’t quite as obvious this time around. How he or she interacts with the other members of the Tempest crew will also have an impact.

The Magnificent Seven crew members …

The previously mentioned Reddit leak also mentioned some of the Tempest crew members Ryder will have fighting by his or her side in the effort to save humanity. According to the survey, there will seven separate teammates to recruit in all, though the leak only makes mention of two specific characters.

The first is a Krogan named “Drack,” who has a strong affinity for his own people and wants no harm to come to them. By defending Krogan ships and settlements against enemy attacks, you can raise his loyalty and unlock new abilities.

The other teammate mentioned in the leak is named “Cora,” who has the ability to drop down a biotic shield to protect Ryder and your squad from enemy fire. This ability seems to fall in line with the Asari race, who we’ve seen extensively in the previous games, which has led avid Redditors to suggest she is the Asari visible in several of Andromeda’s trailers.

And other new friends

In addition to returning races such as the Krogan, Asari, and, of course, humans, Mass Effect: Andromeda will also introduce at least two new alien races. The Reddit leak called the first of these the “Remnant,” a “once powerful and mysterious alien race whose forgotten technology holds the key to gaining power in this region of the galaxy.” It is not made clear whether any members of the Remnant still alive, but their influence apparently still permeates several components of Andromeda. Special “Remnant Vault Raids” task Ryder’s team with locating “Remnant Monolith” structures that contain special “Remnant Artifacts.”

But you won’t be alone in your search. The second race the leak makes mention of is the “Khet,” a race that is also in search of the powerful items. Though details on the Khet are scarce, they appear to be the primary aggressor in Andromeda, and will attack humanity’s settlements as they attempt to gain more influence in the Helius cluster. Naturally, Ryder can venture into Khet outposts to limit their growth — these particular encounters reportedly play out as a sort of horde mode, with several waves of enemies defend against your attacks. It’s possible that these missions might eventually lead you to this location, which Eurogamer suggests may actually be the Khet’s home planet.

Time to strike

Side missions are a large part of what makes the Mass Effect series so special, and it looks like Andromeda will be no exception. The Reddit leak (the amount of information apparently revealed in this survey is truly staggering) details “Strike Team” missions, some of which will actually be available to play cooperatively. “Active” Strike Team missions can be tackled either by yourself, with your multiplayer characters, or with up to three other players, and have you fighting against “increasingly difficult alien attacks” while trying to complete objectives.

Should you not want to venture into the unknown, you can also order a “Deployed Strike Team” mission, where you can sent AI on “randomly generated, time-sensitive missions” to defend settlements or gather supplies. Placing these settlements in strategic locations will clear the “fog of war” effect from the space map, opening up even more Strike missions. Playing in the game’s dedicated multiplayer mode appears to follow the same basic blueprint, with additional gear rewards as well as “APEX,” a currency that can be used in the campaign.

The multiplayer component, will not, however, have any direct impact on Mass Effect: Andromeda’s story. Though director Mac Walters told Polygon he wanted the campaign and online mode to have “more positive ties” to the campaign, he said BioWare’s attempt to link the modes in Mass Effect 3 were met with a mixed reception. In Mass Effect 3, completing multiplayer missions could increase players’ “readiness” for the game’s final mission, affecting the fates of their campaign characters.

Take a look, it’s in a book

Mass Effect: Andromeda’s gargantuan story won’t just be limited to a video game. A “Rights Guide” released by publisher Titan Books revealed that a set of four Mass Effect: Andromeda tie-in novels are in the works, and will hit stores over the next two years. The first book, Mass Effect: Andromeda Initiative — orInitiation, according to its cover — by N.K. Jemisin, was scheduled to arrive in August of 2016, but this release window has passed. The second, third, and fourth books are scheduled to arrive in March 2017, September 2017, and March 2018, respectively. They’ll “act as prequel and sequels to the events in the games” and will provide insight into the Andromeda chapter of the Mass Effect saga.

When can we play it?

According to publisher Electronic Arts, Mass Effect: Andromeda is on track to hit Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC in “early 2017.” An Amazon listing from publisher Dark Horse for the art book The Art of Mass Effect: Andromeda, releasing on March 21, claims that it will launch simultaneously with the game, which is the first time we have heard a specific date from any official source.

Mass Effect: Andromeda also looks like the only game in the series that BioWare is currently developing. Though fans have cried out for a remastered version of the original trilogy for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, executive Peter Moore said during an appearance on IGN Unfiltered that remasters are “not what we do” at Electronic Arts.”

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‘GEARS OF WAR 4’ REVIEW

M.A.Rafay Siddiqui 04:11

You're not suffering from déjà vu. 'Gears of War 4' really is that familiar

HIGHS

Endless Horde mode is addictive and strategic
Competitive multiplayer features fresh new modes
Controls still feel mostly great
Good weapon variety

LOWS

Campaign is brief, repetitive, and poorly written
Some control issues nag
Feels too safe in some areas

You shaky-cam-run through another linear tunnel, debris strategically scattered to block any would-be alternate paths. The corridor opens to a slightly larger room filled with improbably placed waist-high walls and crates. Enemies pour into the room and you duck behind cover, your foes’ fleshy bullet sponge bodies whack-a-moling in and out of view. You shoot them forever. Eventually they die.

A muffled guitar signals the fight’s end, and just in case you missed that someone points it out, saying, “well that’s over” or “that’s the last of ‘em.” You jog to the next hallway, emerge into the next room, and do it again.

Gears of War 4’s brief campaign does feature some creative flourishes, including points where you build defenses like in the game’s “Horde” mode, and more interesting set pieces in the game’s second half, like a massive platform that plummets downward as you scramble for the emergency brake. But the vast majority of the campaign is unimaginative, at least in terms of structure.

Gears of War 4 is not subtle.

It’s easy to understand why The Coalition, Microsoft’s new studio in charge of the franchise, played it safe. The series has always been praised for its level design, and Gears 4 is nothing if not archaic (those who enjoy it will likely call it “classic”). Why curbstomp what isn’t broken?

The answer is that, after almost a decade of Gears of War, this campaign structure doesn’t hold up that well. Gears 4 plays it safe in its story missions, rarely deviating from the formula established a decade ago in the original. Luckily, the same can’t be said about the game’s ample versus multiplayer and horde modes, which feature enough small improvements to feel fresh and will likely provide Gears 4’s long term appeal.

Editor’s Note: The multiplayer portions of the game were played for this review prior to the game’s release, when the general population did not have access. If the game’s launch reveals anything unexpected about these modes the review will be updated.

Like revving a rusty chainsaw

Gears 4 takes place years after the end of the Locust War portrayed in previous games. The Coalition of Ordered Goverments (COG), which players fought for in the original Gears trilogy, finds itself in conflict with bands of “outsiders” who’ve chosen to live outside its rule. Those issues become moot when a new threat emerges: The Swarm, which look, sound and act suspiciously (read: exactly) like humanity’s old enemy, the Locust.

Gears has never been lauded for its clever writing — the old protagonist was literally named “Fenix” and he started the first game rising from the ashes of a prison cell, I mean come on — but fans have come to care about its world and characters over the years, brotastic as they may be. Without spoiling anything I’ll say a series favorite returns in a big way, and a refreshingly diverse cast of new characters rounds out the world nicely. The slightly tyrannical COG leader Jinn, for example, is an Asian woman who most often appears as a holographic face projected sternly onto the body of a gun-toting robot.

The writing remains puerile (sample dialogue: “I think we’re gonna have to redefine our definition of ‘clear’”). Your squad is ever jocular — they literally never stop cracking jokes, even in the face of the most extreme likelihood of violent death, or when one character is kidnapped by a mutant shrimp thing with a kangaroo pouch made of tentacles.

Gears 4 features a brand new enemy force: The Swarm. Unfortunately they look, act, sound, fight, absorb unholy amounts of lead, and probably smell exactly like the Locust, the series’ classic foes. This prolonged déjà vu is yet another way in which the game feels stale, and it reveals a disconnect in the writing: the characters fail to make that incredibly obvious connection, one every player will realize in the game’s first chapter, until late in the story.

Other new enemies, like the soldier droids employed by Jinn, are even worse bullet sponges than the Swocust (I came up with that), though they’ll occasionally do something interesting like charge at you and self-destruct when they take too much damage. Considering how repetitive the stop-and-pop gunfights can get, being forced out of cover by a lumbering kamikaze robot is almost a welcome change.

Competitive multiplayer made for work, not play

Gears of War multiplayer has always felt chunky and plodding, a stark contrast to faster-paced franchise shooters like Call of Duty. For the subset of players who revel in lunging circles around each other trying to blow opponents into bloody chunks with a shotgun, Gears of War 4 multiplayer has a lot to offer.

The Coalition is pushing Gears 4 as an esports contender, though its success or failure as such will ultimately be determined by the community. Some might call it “tactical,” which it is. Others will call it boring, particularly when respawn timers stretch upward of 20 seconds or longer, depending on the mode. While not constantly gratifying, such heavy consequences create tension, even if those long stretches of downtime will prove more compelling for spectators and viewers than the players who are dead.

Matches generally pit squads of five against one another in a surprising variety of truly inventive modes. “Dodgeball,” for example, knocks players out of the running when they’re killed, but sends them back into the fray if their team kills an opposing player, creating opportunities for incredible comebacks. “Escalation,” which tasks players with capturing three points on a map like Call of Duty’s Domination or Destiny’s Control modes, is designed for dramatic sweeps: holding two zones gives your team more points, but managing to capture all three instantly ends the round in your favor. Do you play it safe and defend the two you hold, or go for total domination?

“Arms race” on the other hand takes teams on a tour of Gears 4’s arsenal, requiring a certain number of kills with each weapon before your team’s loadout is upgraded to the next. Teams race to earn the final weapon. Opportunities for comebacks may occur along the way when the two teams’ weapons become unbalanced. Try being stuck with snipers when five opposing players are charging you with Gnasher shotguns.

Gears 4’s competitive offering was designed with balance in mind. Its maps are symmetrical and players start on even ground, cosmetic upgrades like zombie versions of characters and rainbow-hued guns aside. Power weapons are scattered equidistantly around the map, making the start of most rounds a mad dash to control them. There’s cover everywhere, so if stop-and-pop is more your style than running around with a shotgun you can roll tactically with teammates and overwhelm anyone who tries to get close. Or you get blown to bits, but either way you can’t say it wasn’t fair.

Gears 4 makes some missteps in its controls, which become more clear (and problematic) in competitive multiplayer than other modes. There are now three different ways to scramble over cover: by point the control stick forward and tapping “A” when you’re already in cover, by holding “A” and “B” (which is just the worst) simultaneously as you run toward cover, or by tapping “A” to slide toward cover, then quickly tapping “B,” the timing of which is extremely tricky.

Plus, no matter how long I play Gears 4 I always find my aiming reticle snapping just a little bit off from where I want it to go whenever I pop out of cover, maybe because it doesn’t snap your aim to the center of the screen, or possibly due to the perspective problem of your character being off to one side. No matter the cause, having to take a second to adjust your aim after you pop out of cover is irksome at best and fatal at worst.

Rejoining the “Horde”

If the story leaves you bored and competitive multiplayer isn’t your thing, there’s always Horde mode. Introduced in Gears of War 2, Horde in Gears 4 pits teams of up to five players against wave after wave of enemies.

The largest change to “Horde 3.0” is the addition of character classes. Each player picks a class, which confers a certain set of special skills, such as the heavy, who gets bonus damage with heavy weapons; the engineer, who gets a discount when building or repairing defenses; the scout, who gets a bonus when picking up energy from dead enemies (energy used to build, upgrade and repair defenses); and others.

The defenses, also brand new to horde, add strategic layers to the already intense mode. Between waves you have about 30 seconds to construct spike and barbed wire traps, automatic or manned turrets, and gun lockers where you can stick power weapons and let them regenerate ammo. That’s best left to the engineer, while the scout runs around picking up stray energy and other teammates scavenge for dropped weapons or prepare in other ways. Meanwhile enemy waves move in cycles, so the tenth round is harder than the ninth, but the eleventh is easier than the tenth; while the twentieth is twice as hard as the tenth. Like a symphony Horde waxes and wanes and crescendos and tests every skill you possess as a player.

The appeal is simple: how long can you last in the face of this onslaught? Given the new defense-building mechanics, your team in Horde 3.0 is less mobile than in previous versions. You’ll generally establish a “base” area in each map and attempt to fortify it as well as possible.

With the impressive variety of enemies the game can throw at you (including both the Swarm and the game’s new robotic foes) it really is a challenge to fortify for every possibility. Luckily, being less mobile does not necessarily make your defenses less dynamic. You can set up anywhere on the map and can even pick up all your defenses and move around between waves.

The Coalition is pushing Gears 4 as an esports contender…

We do worry that dedicated players will develop a single “ideal” or “perfect” strategy for each map, with defenses arrayed in such a way that the balance is tipped unfairly in players’ direction. But as always, the toughest Horde waves throw as much at you as possible, and boss enemies are so powerful (and require so many bullets to defeat) that they’ll often overrun and destroy whatever meager defenses you’ve set up.

Both the Horde and competitive multiplayer modes have a confusing paid ecosystem grafted on top of them, which lets you spend real money to open randomized booster packs that contain cosmetic items like character and weapon skins in addition to modifier “bounties” that can earn you more experience.

Because of its various character classes, the system seems to affect horde mode in particular. Each class levels up separately (and slowly), and avid players will likely find themselves tempted to buy a boost or four to help them earn upgraded class abilities more quickly. That may or may not rankle you, but the most hardcore Gears players will quickly figure out the most efficient routes to the highest echelons of play, no matter the mode.

Even without microtransactions, though, Horde 3.0 can be surprisingly forgiving. If a teammate is killed you can pick up their dog tags and revive them, and you can retry the same wave over and over if you keep failing (though energy you spend on defenses isn’t returned to you even if the defenses are destroyed). It also lets teammates drop in and out at will, including both online and splitscreen players or a combination thereof. Those features combine to make the whole thing more welcoming and, for those who want to seek for those perfect defensive formations, allow players to experiment until they find a strategy that works.

OUR TAKE

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dreamGEAR: GRX-340 Advanced gaming headset

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Xbox One S 2TB Console - Launch Edition

$400

Xbox $10 Gift Card - Digital Code

$10

Gears of War 4 is not subtle. Any game where you shoot a plane down with a submachine gun from the back of a motorcycle couldn’t possibly be referred to as such. But it does have an interesting duality: The old and familiar gameplay and campaign structure against the fresh modes and features of multiplayer and horde mode, and the progression and microtransaction systems that tie them all together.

If you come to Gears 4 looking for a classic Gears of War campaign, you might enjoy that aspect of it. If you want something fresh, you might be disappointed. If you’re only in it for the “versus” or “horde” modes, you’d likely be happy with no campaign at all, so who cares?

Is there a better alternative?

With the absolute wealth of incredible shooters available now or coming out soon (Destiny, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Overwatch, and Battlefield 1 all come to mind) Gears of War 4 feels like a niche product packaged to delight existing Gears fans and few others. That said, unless you’re determined to stick with the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition remaster of the original game released last year, Gears 4 is now where it’s at for fans of the series.

How long will it last?

Given that Gears is a flagship franchise for Xbox, Microsoft and The Coalition will likely support Gears 4 until the next Gears game in the series comes out. Its focus on esports should keep it competitively fresh, while Horde mode’s infinite waves can theoretically provide endless hours of enjoyment. The campaign, however, is short and uninspired.

Should you buy it?

If you’re in it for the competitive multiplayer or the endless Horde mode, by all means enjoy the carnage. If you want a story that makes sense or a fresh-feeling campaign, look elsewhere.