Mass Effect: Andromeda Multiplayer Will Impact Story
By Dalton Cooper 09 January 2017
According to Mass Effect series producer Mike Gamble, the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s multiplayer mode will impact the single player story campaign.
Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer component was popular enough that BioWare is bringing multiplayer back in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Even though the game is only two months away from release, BioWare has remained mostly tight-lipped about what fans can expect from multiplayer in Mass Effect: Andromeda, but series producer Mike Gamble has let slip a few interesting tidbits of information.
Speaking with Kotaku Australia, Gamble revealed that the multiplayer in Mass Effect: Andromeda will be tied closely to the campaign, and will have a direct impact on the story, not unlike how multiplayer functioned in Mass Effect 3. According to Gamble, players will be able to access Andromeda‘s multiplayer mode while playing the single player campaign, so it should feel like a natural extension of the story instead of a separate feature.
Dubbed Strike Team, the multiplayer missions will be built around the planet Helios, which will have a story that feeds into the larger narrative. And luckily for Mass Effect fans that would rather experience everything solo, Gamble has confirmed that the story content seen in the multiplayer mode can be accessed in the single player campaign as well.
It’s nice knowing more about the multiplayer’s connection to the campaign, but there’s still a lot of unanswered questions in regards to Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s multiplayer. For example, we know that Mass Effect: Andromeda will have card pack microtransactions like we’ve seen in EA’s sports games, but we haven’t actually seen that system in action yet. Presumably the game’s microtransaction system will be on display in the multiplayer beta planned for Mass Effect: Andromeda, but we aren’t sure when that will be at this point.
All we know for certain is that details on Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s multiplayer are “coming soon,” but BioWare hasn’t shared a specific date. Since the game is releasing March 21st, it seems likely that multiplayer details will come before the end of the month, though it’s possible that they may have to wait until February, when BioWare is planning to pull the curtain back on other aspects of the game, like its PC minimium requirements.
From the scant details we have on Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s multiplayer mode, it sounds interesting enough. Mass Effect 3 proved multiplayer can complement the franchise’s single player content nicely, so it will be exciting to see Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s multiplayer Strike Team mode in action.
Mass Effect: Andromeda will release on March 21st, 2017 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
