Mass Effect Andromeda trailer is heavy on spectacle

BioWare has released a new trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda, the next entry in its super-successful sci-fi series, due out on consoles and PC early next year, according to a report in The Verge.

This new minute and a half trailer gives the first good look at the game itself, showing players what they'll be doing in another galaxy, says the report in The Verge.

The trailer comes as Mass Effect fans around the world celebrate N7 Day, a BioWare-endorsed event that takes place annually on November 7th, and refers to the series' previous main character Shepard's military designation.

We won't get to play as Shepard again in Andromeda, the starring role instead being filled by two characters - siblings by the family name of Ryder. As with previous Mass Effects, that means players will be able to select a male or female protagonist to guide a ragtag crew of characters through a brand new galaxy, according to The Verge.

Andromeda will borrow the blue-skinned Asari, angry lizard Krogan, and other races first introduced in the first Mass Effect trilogy, but will duck any direct connection to the events of those games.

The events of the new game take place some 600 years later, but due to the length of time it takes for ships to cross the intergalactic void between our Milky Way and Andromeda, Ryder and friends actually left before the Reaper war documented in the previous trilogy, leaving them conveniently in the dark.

Earlier footage of the new game had been used as a demonstration for the capabilities of the PS4 Pro, the clip showing a focus on exploration as a male Ryder scooted his way around an alien cavern.

The new trailer does indicate BioWare will be injecting Andromeda with plenty of the story we've come to expect from the RPG developer. We'll find out more soon as Mass Effect: Andromeda flies closer to a Spring 2017 release, writes Rich McCormick in The Verge report.