Bioware have decided to have both in the gender choice that will begin Mass Effect Andromeda by making both the male and female characters parts of the story, as siblings.
The norm for previous Mass Effect games was a choice of gender in character creation, so players could make their own particular Shepard to their specificity. In Andromeda, you’ll have a brother or sister, depending on how you choose, also involved in the story through-out the game.
That’s not all – it’s a family affair as the father will also play a part. He was revealed a couple of E3s ago in some of the first footage of the game we saw.
Speaking at the recent PlayStation Meeting, BioWare creative director Mac Walters said “We’re seeing our male character, at E3 we got to see our female character. A little surprise here – these two are actually brother and sister.”
“They both exist in the game world at the same time. If you’re playing as the female Ryder, your brother is out there somewhere in the universe,” Walters added. “The character we saw two E3s ago, the N7, is actually your father. So we have got the full Ryder family revealed. We’ll do names and things in the future.”
A departure from the norm is always welcome from BioWare, but this raises a lot of questions. How much customization will we have over Ryder or her brother? Will there be a deep character creation that then makes an educated guess as to how the father and sibling will look? How much impact will these choices have on the story – specially with regards to how you’re approaching your play-style? If you’re downright evil, will your family members suffer for it, or vice versa?
Frankly, the fact there’s already this many questions is probably a good thing all things considered. Here’s hoping for more news soon, you can watch the gameplay video that accompanied the reveal for yourself below!
