Hub worlds, planets and the size of Heleus.

Are they all necessarily different worlds? Just to look at Earth as an example, you can find icy places, temperate places, rainy places, volcanic places, waterfall places, seedy places, prairie places and more. Not saying we're not looking at different worlds but we could be seeing fewer than we think.

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Mass Effect Andromeda

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Technically the Nexus isn't a world... just a humongous space station.

Story wise, I expect the main story arc to be around 20-30 hours. Exploration wise and quests outside the core arc I like to see at least another 80 hours including the Loyalty Missions (seven squad mates x 5Hrs per = 35hrs for loyalty and the rest exploration).  Having said this, as a completionist, I can see over 100 hours easy.  Still, Bio haa thrown a few twists at us, so who knows?

Game size is a bit more complex.
If 4K is supported, I'm pegging the game to be around 80GB+. Otherwise appx. 45GB.  The initial DA:I problems had console players re-download the digital game as one  solution to game freezing problems. I sincerely hope that is not the case today.

To continue, Helius is supposedly a 100 planet game world (from leak). Realistically, though, I expect 30-35 planets that we can explore and any additional planets on the Helius Cluster Navigation Map to be "explored" by AI agents (ie: mining, intelligence, Outposts setup).  Individual planetary maps are supposedly quite large (ie: bigger than the DA:I Hinterlands). The cluster is also supposed to have Remnant Space Vaults  that we can explore for loot.

There is at least one world that we have not seen and where we will meet our Helius LI.

I hope so too, however I hope it has railings. Don't know what the obsession with no safety is in complexes like this in media Also, I don't want to fall while walking/looking over the edge


As was mentioned, some of these aren't necessarily different planets. I sincerely hope that Bioware doesn't overuse the Single Biome Planet trope that Star Wars is so famous for. Most planets aren't going to be only scorching desert or freezing desert (at least the ones life develops on), and definitely not all forest. They could be heavily volcanic though, if it's a new world. A mostly water planet could happen as well.

While it makes sense for the main zones we're heading to to be one environment type since they're likely only a few square kilometers in area, I want to be able to explore multiple areas on the same planet occasionally, with different geology and even flora and fauna. While this is something we got to do to a limited extend in the original trilogy, it still played that trope straight as far as I remember.

On a similar note, I hope we get to explore a tidally locked planet. It would be pretty cool as a homeworld for one of the native Andromedan species, too, since it would offer the chance at some interesting lore and a way to make them feel alien. With one half of the planet in eternal night, the other in day, and a prime meridian of constant "daybreak"/"twilight", it would be interesting to see where the species developed as well as how. Are they sensitive to light and always wear sunglasses on our ships, and prefer cooler environments since they are native to the dark side? Do they have terrible nightvision and a preference for heat from developing on the light side? The temperate middle would be the way to go if Bioware wants them to fit in simply, but it's the least interesting How would this affect sleep, if they sleep at all? For one thing, it wouldn't be impacted by light levels as ours is, so they'd be right at home on a starship with constant lighting (not that the other species would like the lights on while they're trying to sleep in the same quarters, mind).

Ah... my mind wanders

100 hours is a lot of game. There would have to be very compelling content, even with Mass Effect's excellent gameplay, to justify that length. After all, one can always start a new character and play again.

I enjoyed The Witcher 3, and it's a lengthy game. I likewise enjoy DAI, though my interest always begins to wane around 60-80 hours. (It typically takes me 145 hours to complete DAI in its entirety.) I have to find a way to get reinvested, or I abandon that character. I hate DA's gameplay, honestly, so ME would probably be better, but still...

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Mass Effect Andromeda

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"...though my interest always begins to wane around 60-80 hours..."

Yeah. That's about the size of it for me as well. Bio and others have said that there is plenty of interesting things to do after a mission to a planet.... (ie: you can continue to explore). My wish is that Bio really learned from DA:I's mistakes. Choices and consequences, Inquisition's political and economic power, civil war, ... etc were marketed as a "Big Thing" by ML. Look how that turned out.

Hope there's an Eldritch location like the Precursor's world from the movie Pacific Rim



Spooky...

I don't expect the game to be bigger then 40 gigabytes even if it supports 4K, plenty of PC games have supported 4K and they are generally around the 40 gigabyte mark.  With the length of the game I can't see them trying to do what they did with Dragon Age: Inquisition again for the time frame you listed is basically how Inquisition worked and people complained frequently about the amount of "filler content" because it didn't have anything to do with the main story.

 

And with new planets come new aliens! These two species aren't Remnants, but somehow the left ones look familiar. Are they already being discussed somewhere?

If all of the cutscenes are rendered in engine, there's no reason for the game to take up more disc space for supporting 4k resolutions. Any pre-rendered cutscenes like the splash intros or maybe FTL warp thingies as the Tempest travels to different star systems (if they even have those at all) would not amount to nearly double the disc space, especially for such short videos.

All cutscenes in engine wouldn't double the file size because the rendering engine would scale, which is how I can run ME3 at 1440p without taking up more space than someone running the game at 720p. Doubly so on the PS4Pro where the game won't be running in 2160p native anyway and is actually an upscaled 1200p or 1440p if I'm not mistaken.

If anything, an 80GB game size would due to them not being limited by PS360 in either storage or RAM, and would allow them to make more planets traversable or make the traversable areas on planets that much bigger to require the Nomad to go back and forth between locales.