MASS EFFECT™: ANDROMEDA – Gameplay Series #1: Combat

They did say there'll be variants of the jetpack for moving around, so I'm glad they added the biotic movements.

Not that I disagree, but I'm not expecting DAO or DA2's tactics system. ME never had it, so I'm not sure they'd develop a full one like those.

Indeed. I think Vintage Heat Sinks, while probably useful on any weapon, will most likely be best used on weapons with small magazines and ammo reserves.

In ME3 the Harrier, Mattock, and many sniper rifles had that problem. Even with high player accuracy, they didn't fare well in extended firefights.

To expand on this slightly, a tactics menu along the lines of DA - even if refined and improved upon - doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to being able to tactically assess the battlefield as combat unfolds and reacting and directing your squad accordingly. A shielded enemy appears from around a corner unexpectedly, and I, as a vanguard, want to immediately be able to pause, asses where my squad are, and if it's safe to do so command one of them to strip the enemy's shields while I trigger my charge to hit a second later. Relying on a tactics menu and hoping one of my squad recognise that enemy and preempt my desire to charge... a recipe for a great deal of frustration.

What works in multiplayer works there for several reasons: one being that the nature of multiplayer makes pausing impossible and therefore other solutions must be found; another reason being that your squad are all sentient human players who can make decisions along with you. A singleplayer with no ability to assign squad commands is akin to a multiplayer match where the players don't talk to each other and don't understand their roles and just fire off what they want when they want without any thought to working together. A singleplayer with the ability to assign squad commands is akin to a multiplayer match where the players speak to each other and each understand how their powers synergise with one another and work together as a team for maximum efficiency, reacting to threats as they appear.

Will we one day not have squad mates at all? Will they perhaps just be tag-alongs who aren't part of a squad as such and are just there as an extra gun like npc fighters often are in other shooters? Is this a mechanic that will continue to be iterated on until every vestige of 'take your squad into battle' is gone?

My pessimism is no doubt ill-founded, and a future video on squad commands will clear all of this up and I'll feel a lot more comfortable about it. It's not knowing and not understanding how this can be got around successfully that makes me concerned, and fearful for one of the things that has been an iconic part of BioWare combat for the last decade.

They removed it? Shit.

The power wheel is out. THe weapon wheel is still there, where you can access other features like favorites.
You can pause the game but you can't aim to hit.

I like it too but now it forces you to think quickly real time or forces you to take cover to plan out your strategy.  Considering the game is more mobile and less of a cover shooter, using cover as a way to pause is the better option IMO.  And apparently we cannot control the squad anymore.  They do actions with their skills and we react accordingly to do deadly combos or vice versa.  It's almost like FFXV link strikes where the Squad AI reacts intelligently based on our actions.  You just spec out what abilities they have.  Seems more realistic.  

I'm already prepared for shouting at my PC monitor "GOD DAMNIT VAKARIAN" just like in ME1-3

I think it's not exactly a change "for the sake of change" but more that these devs found that pausing goes against the "action" element which is the combat. RPG was basically not really a component of combat in these games since 2 because guns and weaponry, and gunplay isn't as much about numbers but more about mechanics and upgrades to those mechanics that are strictly linear (like, you get two different guns and they shoot like two different kinds of guns, you upgrade a particular skill or gun and it is just a more powerful version of that).

I think they want to encourage strategy within the real-time gameplay and squad-mate control as a real-time element that makes you think fast instead of the methodical planning that is borderline cheating, like the ability to aim via pausing.

I'm not really against that, but I am a little bit skeptical of the overall flow of combat where it seems it's just really open areas with enemies running all over the place and rather tough HP bars. That to me seems like a time-sink. Like, I want combat to be self-sustainable so the game literally can't run out of things to do, but at times it looks just a bit too aimless and chaotic even for me.

I think it's just how they set it to be for the trailer... So they could show the powers and weapons freely.