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

These are both good points. It's not something I'd considered until now. They're going to have to have their own jet packs, right?

Even so, I bet my bum there will still be more magical teleportations than usual.

In that video where they first announced jetpacks... where they're in the vault I think... did it show what happened with the squad after Ryder jetpacked across the gap to the platform/other side?

No. The entire playable sequence shows Ryder by himself. You don't see another character until the cut scene kicks in.

Not that I recall.

We had squaddies jumping with us in ME3. I can't imagine they won't be able to jet-boost up a rock face or to a higher platform to follow us.

I don't expect them to be as agile as we are in combat, but I'm sure they'll keep up reasonably well, with the occasional teleport, otherwise.

That wouldn't make much sense if krogans in MP will have jetpacks, which will surely happen.

The animations are choppy than ever and I see no fluid organic movement whatsoever and they look like reused ME1 animations with jetpack, hell even ME3 animations are better in my opinion, and the graphics look like a downgrade compared to other games that is better than the demo. It doesn't look as impressive as I have expected it's like they're adding features but not improving or fixing the common problems such as animations and gunplay.

That just isn't true.

Just because you played the combat with the equivalent of one hand tied behind your back doesn't mean that the synergies between squad mates and coordinating their powers wasn't a huge part of the Mass Effect combat system. It was just a huge part that you ignored!

I reckon I used pause after pretty much every kill or cool down in every battle in every run through of every version of the game!

The synergy in Dragon Age is nowhere near as significant. In fact I can't even think of any synergies in Dragon Age combat at all If there are any I've never paid much attention to them!

Now I'm not saying that the new system won't be just as enjoyable as the old one. I can probably adjust and if the squad mate AI is clever enough then just telling them to target your target could be enough to have them strip shields for your biotics to work or set primers for your detonators (or vice-versa). Certainly I would never have trusted the old system to be that clever but if they can swing that then I have hope that at least the squad mate synergies will still work.

I'm still going to miss the opportunity to pause and assess the battlefield though. That was also pretty key for me.

These examples don't exactly translate well. Incendiary Ammo sets everything ablaze. A Soldier with a properly specced Concussive Shot can set off explosions every two seconds, or so. The weapon-focused classes are the most powerful classes in ME3, as much as I poke fun at the stupidly OP Nova-Vanguard, because those classes optimize your weapon damage as you progress.

The casters, on the other hand, needed their constant explosions to hope to even appear to keep pace with a weapon user. Constant explosions meant using companions' abilities to supplement our own. Playing an Adept? Javik + Liara is an insanely good squad to bring along, since the BEs just keep on coming.

With MEA, we do get rid of universal cooldown, as you say. That means that the initial "self-combo" will be essentially automatic. The individual cooldowns, though, are much longer, now. This means more gunplay in between powers (boo!) or relying upon squaddies' powers to supplement our own. I know they will contribute in some fashion. It just likely won't be as precise as "Shepard Warp - Liara Warp - Javik Dark Channel - Shepard Throw - Liara Warp - Shepard Warp, etc..." 

I'm eager to see how helpful these new squaddies are in combat. I'm used to having powers on demand. That's how I choose my crew. If they're just meatshields with weapons, now, I'll be disappointed.

It sounds like that might be BioWare's thinking, too; but I can't imagine this will work until we're all gaming on Watson: Gaming Edition.

DAI has its own unique, abysmal mechanics, so I never consider it when thinking of Mass Effect. I expect that they'll at least be able to traverse the landscape with us, vertical or otherwise. (I sure hope so!) I can definitely understand your skepticism. They don't have the best track record. Skepticism is likely the safe course. 

Exactly!

Another thing that I haven't seen mentioned here...
The video had ZERO information about the special ammo types.
They didn't even used them once in the entire video.