The latest trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda doubles as a recruitment ad for the "Andromeda Initiative", a call for humanity's best and brightest to seek their future in a distant galaxy. It's like those Mars colonization drives you hear about now and then, but with a trip time of centuries instead of months.
Mass Effect: Andromeda's Ryder family
That fellow in the N7 suit with the killer space-collar is the same one we saw in our first glimpses at Andromeda, but he's not the character you'll actually play. That honor goes to his son and daughter, who you can choose between at the start of the game. His child may be the one standing to the right, since their blue and white space suit is pretty similar to the one shown in that 4K gameplay footage. It could just be a standard design, but Mass Effect usually gives its characters distinct suits so you can tell them apart with their faces covered up.
If it is the Ryder family, this confirms that your protagonist wasn't born on the Tempest during its centuries-long trip; they know what life in the Milky Way was like and chose to leave it behind (probably because of the Reapers). And dad must be pretty hardcore if he's still wearing the N7 armor after raising two fully grown kids. The coolest part, though, is that view of the Tempest under construction.
Correction: I got my ship names wrong. The Tempest is the smaller, Normandy-style ship your team will use to get around - what I'm talking about here is actually an Ark Ship. Sorry about that!
Mass Effect: Andromeda's Ark Ship is looking Citadel-ish
Look at the extended foils on the back, sorry, stern section of the ship. With the two parts still yet to be connected, it's clear that the ship's designers drew a lot of inspiration from the Citadel. There's the central ring and four arms, which look like they can be drawn in as a defensive mechanism. I wonder if the living quarters are located on those arms, and if they can be rotated to simulate gravity when the ship's residents are out of hypersleep.
We'll learn a lot more about the game when "orientation" for the Andromeda Initiative begins on November 7. But you can express your interest (read: join the mailing list) right now.
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