Fans of Bioware's Mass Effect franchise got a long, new look at Mass Effect: Andromeda yesterday at Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro reveal, and it looked stunning. Alongside the first real footage of the game in action, new details about the game have emerged as well, mainly that the game's two protagonists are siblings.
"What a lot of people don't know, little surprise here, is that these two are brother and sister," creative director Mac Walters said in an interview with PlayStation Access. "And they both exist in the game world at the same time. So if you're playing as the sister Ryder, female Ryder, your brother is somewhere in the universe."
The clip shown during Sony's event put the spotlight on the brother, while footage seen at E3 2016 focused on the sister of the Ryder family.
It's a big departure for the series. In previous Mass Effect games, players could choose to play as either the male or female version of Commander Shepard, the hero of the story. Now Bioware is taking the gender option not selected by the player and turning them into a full-blown character.
But it's not just the Ryder siblings that will be front and center in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Their father will also play a key role in the story. In fact, fans have already gotten a glimpse of the character, with Walters saying the character in the N7 suit featured in the game's reveal trailer at E3 2015 is actually the father of the Ryder family.
"We've got the full Ryder family full sort of now revealed," Walters said. "We'll do names and things in the future as well."
It remains to be seen how having a family of related characters will play into the game's story. Commander Shepard served as a lone hero with no real family or past to speak of in the previous games, in many ways a blank slate for players to create. It should be interesting then for players this time around to interact with their in-universe family members once the next installment in the franchise does finally arrive.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC sometime in 2017. You can watch the latest footage of the game in action (and running on Sony's new 4K and HDR compatible PS4 Pro) here.
