Scientifically speaking, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way. With one of the most popular games set in space, Mass Effect has launched their space shuttle to where no human or video game has ever been: the Andromeda Galaxy.
Players familiar with first three games in the Mass Effect series will not be playing as the same characters, as Bioware has brought in new characters for you to enjoy in their latest release Mass Effect: Andromeda. Creative director Mac Walters told Polygon at the E3 release that the game is a story about becoming a hero and being what he called a “stranger in a strange land:”
“This isn’t your home. The only way that works is if we really make that an integral part of the story, and the story of the characters that you meet when you’re there.”
It isn’t like the protagonist of Mass Effect: Andromeda is oblivious to his surroundings. The new protagonist, Ryder, knows how to fight and how to shoot guns but you can tell that there will be noticeable difference between the new protagonist and lead protagonist of the first three Mass Effect games, Commander Shepard, according to Polygon.
Some of the game play can be found here by writer Eric Chang. We know that it will ignore all choices players made in Mass Effect 3. Bioware studio boss Aaryon Flynn told Eurogamer that they want to move on from the acknowledgement given at the end of Mass Effect 3. Flynn added that since Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s goal is to be a new game it would be hard for the game to achieve that goal if there was a reference back to Mass Effect 3. Despite that expectation amongst gamers for there to be a link, it wouldn’t scientifically make sense because of the distance between the two galaxies. Andromeda is 2.537 million light years away from the Milky Way galaxy, so even though Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place after Mass Effect 3, the distance between the two galactic bodies would render the events in Mass Effect 3 superfluous to what will happen in Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The release of Mass Effect: Andromeda will be sometime in March 2017. You can play the game on PS4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.