Mass Effect Andromeda multiplayer has links to campaign
But won't make you "feel cheated" into playing.
It sounds like Mass Effect Andromeda has a bit of a metagame going on, as well as the main campaign where you run around as Ryder, land on planets and make cool alien friends.
This other game tasks you with solidifying humanity's reach into the Andromeda galaxy - which sounds a bit like we're invading, to be honest.
Andromeda's multiplayer will tie into your single-player campaign via this feature, Game Informer reported. But how? Details are still a little unclear.
Mission funds from multiplayer will have "tendrils going out into the rest of the campaign," lead designer Ian Frazier teased. But you won't be forced to play online if you don't want to.
"If you feel cheated, we've done something wrong," Frazier concluded.
It's like an evolved successor to Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode, which was gently introduced via campaign missions on multiplayer maps. In the game's fiction, these areas - once cleared of enemies - were then passed over to N7 commandos to hold down. Multiplayer had you play as those commandos.
In Andromeda, a slightly-more advanced system is in play.
"You will have possibilities to send teams to complete kind of side missions, or to do it yourself in multiplayer," producer Fabrice Condominas added.
It feels similar to Dragon Age Inquisition's War Table missions, which allowed you to send off assets to complete far-off missions for XP, loot and other rewards. The difference here will be that you can take on these missions personally in multiplayer.
Mass Effect 3's multiplayer was surprisingly fun, and we already know Andromeda will be sticking with the same four-player horde mode structure.
Maps will apparently feature more verticality this time around thanks to Andromeda's addition of a jetpack. You'll also be able to skip some of the randomness of blind item crates by purchasing specific items via a rotating stock.
We're starting to get a clearer picture of what Mass Effect Andromeda has in store - including details of at least four of your new squadmates.