The Mass Effect series has worked on improving its combat ever since the first one got slammed for its stiff, stuck-in-the-mud movement and sluggish turning radius. As every Mass Effect has promised, the combat will be better, and, for the most part, it has gotten incrementally better each time.
So, down below is the first video in a Mass Effect: Andromeda Official Gameplay Series, tackling that albatross of role-playing games: combat.
The jetpack plays a prominent role in combat mobility. It's progressed some since that leak from April 2016, which was reportedly a snippet from 2014 footage. If true, that's still a couple years after the launch of 2012's Mass Effect 3. All of that is neither here nor there. There's a jetpack. You can evade and even hover with the thing, so that's unexpected. It's probably going to be a nuisance when you have to face enemies that can likewise use jetpacks.
There's the seemless use of cover, including ducking behind your land vehicle. That should tone down the telegraphing when you're about to jump into combat. Not like in, say, Gears of War where it becomes very obvious when it's stop-and-pop time because a ton of waist-high barriers just showed up in the level design.
The weapons menus are sterilized compared to the original series. Don't know if that's good or bad yet. Probably good. Finding, sorting, comparing, and equipping gun mods, such as scopes and clips, was a clunky system before. This ought to make it so you're spending more time blasting and less time ogling menus.
Three gun types, plus melee weapons, mix up the battlefield. That's in addition to skill-based weaponry, like engineering skills (turrets), and biotic skills (you can use enemies as a shield or a weapon to throw around), etc.
Some enemies keep their distance. Others move in and try to flush you out. And you can still issue your squad mates individual commands, like "take cover," etc. I mean, if you've got time for that kinda thing. Overall, nothing revelatory here. That's all fine, as long as it works.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is one month away. This is not a drill. It launches March 21 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
