‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ Has Two Heroes, So You Won’t Be Forced To Choose A Gender

In past iterations of Mass Effect, one of the most crucial and debated decisions you could make was whether you opted to play as a male or female version of protagonist Commander Shepard. It didn’t actually make much difference, the two Shepards were basically just gendered palate swaps, but people still took it surprisingly seriously. Some were devoted to MaleShep, others to FemShep, and both sides insisted their version of the Commander was the real one.

Well, Mass Effect: Andromeda, which we saw in action for the first time yesterday, will once again have a male and female protagonist, but this time you won’t have to choose. The male and female heroes, both of whom are simply being referred to as “Ryder” at this point, are actually unique characters that both exist within the game’s universe at the same time. Mass Effect: Andromeda creative director Mac Walters explained how it will work in a video from Playstation Access…

“What a lot of people don’t know, little surprise here, is that these two are brother and sister, and they both exist in the game world at the same time. So if you’re playing as the sister Ryder, female Ryder, your brother is somewhere in the universe. We’ll do [individual] names and things in the future.”

It still isn’t clear how exactly the two-heroes system will work. Will you have to switch back and forth to get past certain sections of the game, or can you just leave one Ryder or the other on the other side of the galaxy for the whole game if you want Hopefully the additional protagonist is used to add some extra depth to the game.

Mass Effect: Andromeda blasts off in early 2017.

[Via Polygon]