Travel Across the Stars With Mass Effect: Andromeda

Posted on 28 Feb 2017 by
Kyle Johnson

The second documentary video leading up to Mass Effect: Andromeda’s release is out now, detailing Profiles, Squads and more. The first, which covered skills and combat abilities showcased much of the action and varieties in environments, but here, the team at Bioware goes into finer detail about the options players will have in crafting their own character.

Profiles, another new addition to the Mass Effect series, are analogous to classes, though not a direct equivalent. Profiles are ranked up by investing skill points in various skill categories, and profiles provide various combat enhancements, depending on the profile used. Players can swap between profiles at any time, of which there are seven, giving players opportunities to try out new playstyles at any time.

An example of the playstyles in action is the addition of Favorites, far expanded upon from previous titles. Now, players can assign favorites to certain profiles, and add in three skills with that profile and its associated benefits, making for a total of 12 skills available at any one time. The video goes at length to show these favorites in action, as the player fights off a mix of humanoid, robotic, and large armored enemies. Whereas before you might be forced to switch to different ammunition types, now, it appears as though skills and favorites will fill that role.

Finally, Squads. Though perhaps reduced in effectiveness from previous games, with squadmates having three active and two passive abilities, players can now “prime” enemies by setting up crowd-control skills, and then order squadmates to “detonate,” that is, jump in and finish off the targets. Players can grow the abilities of their squadmates to specialize in either priming or detonating, further enhancing their combat abilities.

With likely looks at the RPG mechanics and perhaps the Andromeda universe itself before the game releases, there’ll be quite a bit more to see from Mass Effect: Andromeda before it releases on March 21st, 2017.

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