The GameInformer article thread

SPOILER Information: GameInformer Story Reveals

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- Story introduction: You awake as you arrive near the "Habitat-7" planet only to discover it is not a habitable world as you had estimated, due to some atmospherical/gravital differences. You lose contact with the other arcs due to the Habitat-7's interference. The only thing to do is to go down and explore the planet.

- You're part of a scouting squad with the Pathfinder until events early in the game lead to you becoming the Pathfinder.

- After becoming the Pathfinder the quest continues onwards to explore other planets. This means you also take on the mission your father had; to explore planets and establish a peaceful existence for humanity in Andromeda.
    - "Planets feature wide-open maps, peppered with colonies, ruins, minerals and other points of interest"
    - Mac: "No it's not a sandbox game. It's open world in the sense that you can follow the icons on your map, you can mine, you can drive off in the distance because something looks good.     That's part of the freedom."
- Ryder's story takes on a more traditional Hero's Journey after enterting the status of Pathfinder. (Good vs Evil I guess?)'
- Will Andromeda's future titles be about Ryder too? Who knows? Andromeda 1 is about Ryder becoming a hero from a relatively inexperienced and unrecognized state.

- Gameinformer notes that the overall style is reminiscent to "the same transition DAII underwent to Inquisition" of trading smaller, more linear levels to wide-open spaces to explore.

- "Mass Effect Andromeda has the largest footprint of any BioWare game to date. Between critical-path missions, optional planets and hubs players will have a lot of ground to cover" which is where the Mako AKA Nomad comes into play.

- Story intrigue lies in: "What happened in the last 600 years? What are the motivations of the Kett being hostile? Are there other unfamiliar races in the Heleus cluster?"

The last part, I'm not sure what to think about, but I have a feeling of where it could go that would be a slight mistake IMO. The Kett, much like much of the initiative, makes sense just in the concept and the story can thrive on just those elements to make interesting diplomatic situations, danger and drama, but I have a feeling the route they are going is different than the Kett being hostile because they have first contact with a completely foreign pocket-sized civilization arriving to settle potentially reserved worlds. I have a feeling the Kett's "motivations" refer to some less interesting elements akin to "why are the Venatori fighting other forces in Ferelden" or "why have the Grey Wardens turned". I don't need some scheming evil that somehow manipulated the Kett to fight humans and Milky Way species due to brainwash. I hope the real motivation is plain and simple fear of the unknown, rashness and cultural difference, because that has more substance.

As for the bolded parts. That cements that this is basically Mass Effect Inquisition and I just hope it means this will be "Inquisition done right".

Lingering questions I have:
- If Andromeda has an unprecendented amount of "golden worlds" (inhabitable planets) and we'll land on those to colonize... will we ever also land on non-Golden worlds? Will the game have enough hardship and struggle amidst all the empowering progress for the player? Will you ever get the sense that Space is very dangerous and not meant for you (a theme I thought the Trilogy got across sometimes, particularly with the Reapers before the ME3 ending)
- So... have Mac already spoiled to us that you will become the hero who defeated the bad guys at the end of the story and all is good?
- Is Mac still mistaking the ME3 ending problem as boiling down to players being sad Shepard would clearly die in most endings, and now they're saying "nobody can die, don't worry"? If so... well, good luck making us care if the story is only about the infighting of good vs evil guys.