The fourth installment of the science-fiction space traveling video game “Mass Effect” officially titled as “Mass Effect: Andromeda” will be releasing on the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, and the PC in March next year.
In addition to the anticipation of gamers to the game, some players are looking forward to how the storyline of the video game will pick up from the “Mass Effect” trilogy.
Apparently, they don’t have to wonder anymore as a new series of “Mass Effect” novels will soon be published by Titan Books and will dwell exactly on what happened after the first three games and the events before “Mass Effect: Andromeda,” details Gamespot.
The novels shall serve as both a prequel and sequels to the events in the first three video games in the franchise. The storyline of “Mass Effect: Andromeda” shall also become part of the overarching “Mass Effect” saga.
The series of books shall focus on key characters and answer the many questions fans have been asking about the plotlines of the video game franchise.
The first book entitled “Mass Effect: Andromeda Initiation” is written by fantasy author N.K. Jemisin and will come out in August this year, while the next three books will come out in March 2017, in September 2017 and March 2018, details IGN.
Interestingly, the second and third novels still do not have authors at this time but the fourth shall be written by “Mass Effect” creative director Mac Walters.
During the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2016 held in the middle of this month at Los Angeles, California, Mac Walters said that “Mass Effect: Andromeda” would take place hundreds of years after “Mass Effect 3.” The hundreds of years became the operative word for the development of the “Mass Effect” novel series.
Giving gamers more choices
The “Mass Effect” video game franchise has been hounded by a system that favored good and evil choices by gamers using a Paragon/Renegade morality system.
So if gamers would push their playable characters in either of those two directions, they would be granted more powerful abilities. But those who shall take the neutral path or the in-between choice will be left with fewer options to help them battle their enemies.
Apparently, the fourth game in the video game series, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” shall do away with not giving many powerful abilities to those gamers who will make the neutral path.
It was game creative director Mac Walters of developer BioWare who confirmed that “Mass Effect: Andromeda” shall feature shades of gray for gamers which have become the in-thing among current video games.
In fact, such is now being seen in the gameplay of “The Walking Dead” by Telltale Games, “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” by CD Projekt Red, and BioWare’s latest game “Dragon Age: Inquisition.” All these games have been highly lauded for their in-depth storytelling and meaningful choices that it provides to gamers.
BioWare will also be using the same approach to “Mass Effect: Andromeda” which means that gamers can actually shape the gameplay story by their own choices.
Walters say that the development team at BioWare has been looking for other ways to engage more of those shades of gray and less about being obviously right or obviously wrong. He said that the key is giving gamers real choices.
Biggest one for the franchise
“Mass Effect” is known to be very popular among gamers but they are not as good as the other games in the stable of game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), in terms of sales.
But EA expects that things will change for the better for the franchise with the release of the fourth game of the series “Mass Effect: Andromeda” on the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, and the PC in March next year.
Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, announced during the company’s investor day that “Mass Effect: Andromeda” could go on to become the biggest one for the franchise.
Wilson said that the new “Mass Effect” game will have grown in the category of role-playing games and break beyond the franchise’s core gamer audiences.