Mass Effect Andromeda looks to be a hugely ambitious game, and one that will more than justify the long wait for it (it’s a bit sad how often I have to say something like that these days)- but there are some things that Bioware have said that have spooked fans a bit. For instance, Bioware recently said that they might look into selling squadmates and party member characters for Andromeda as DLC- which no fan would appreciate being sold piecemeal to them.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Bioware’s Mac Walters took the time to try and clarify what Bioware meant when they said that a bit. “Yeah – I think there’s a lot of different ways we could introduce new characters like that, new squadmates, whether they are one-offs for a mission,” he mused. “But I think Andromeda is more of a persistent experience, more of an open world than we’ve done before. Even once the critical path story, the main narrative, is done there’s still a lot to accomplish. It’s a game of exploration so if we wanted to create a space for a new follower we can do it. It’s more a question of will we do it, at this point. I wasn’t ruling it out, I think I meant, but it’s certainly possible we’ll bring in new characters before we get to a Mass Effect Andromeda 2.”
In other words, characters not necessarily central to the main campaign, but more side characters meant to explore the game world in the post game, may be sold as post launch DLC. While I am still not happy about that, at least it would be better than the Protean DLC for Mass Effect 3. Now that was an absolute disaster.