Mass Effect: All ten potential new Exotic Species of Andromeda have been cut due to budget, reach and cosplay

Mass Effect: Andromeda could have had as many as ten new Exotics, but they were cut due to budget, scope, and … cosplay considerations. One of the biggest reviews of Mass Effect: Andromeda was the lack of new alien species, especially when the Mass Effect trilogy introduced us to the Krogan, Asari, Drell, Batarian, Salarian, Turians, Quarian, Prothean, Hanar, Elcor, Keepers, Volus, Collectors, Geth, Reapers, Vorcha, and more.

In our review Mass Effect: Andromeda, we said, “The bizarre thing is that BioWare went to the trouble of shipping us 2.5 million light years away to introduce just two new alien races ( plus a few robots) over more than 50 hours of campaign and main side missions, and only one local joins your crew. “

Apparently, that wasn’t the original plan, and plenty of Andromeda developers spoke to TheGamer recently to discuss why these new alien species never made it to the end game.

Have you played Mass Effect: Andromeda?

YESNO

“I think it was a project that couldn’t have lived up to expectations,” said Neil Pollner, who was a senior writer on Mass Effect 3 and wrote parts of Andromeda. “Not just the high bar from the original trilogy, but the logical expectations everyone would have from Mass Effect to a whole new galaxy. Because the scope of [the first] Mass Effect was so incredibly massive, there was an inherent promise that you would get a massive new experience with a ton of new things in it. [what was supposed to be the first] Mass Effect Andromeda – new species, new lore, a whole new galaxy at your fingertips, etc.

“But we only got the budget for two new species, plus Remnant. Not to mention that we couldn’t even include all the species in the Milky Way. And we weren’t going to be able to let you travel across the galaxy. This meant that we had to develop the story around some pretty glaring inorganic limitations. So not only did you get something that felt (and was) a lot smaller than what you had before, but almost everyone who played the game probably had something they really liked about Mass Effect and that just wasn’t there.

Pollner went on to discuss how they had big plans in pre-production, including expanding the “first contact” experience with new aliens, but most of that work wasn’t even used.

Chris Hepler, another longtime Mass Effect writer, talked about how he came up with five or six new alien species, and ex-Bioware writer Jo Berry also came up with a few that “were awesome.”

Dorian Kieken, who was the design director of the franchise when Andromeda began development, explained that some of the early alien concepts were “pretty out there” and were deleted because one of the goals of Mass Effect Andromeda was to make it easier for fans. cosplay the characters from the game.

“One of the strengths of the original Mass Effect trilogy is that you can actually cosplay most alien characters – with the exception of the Hanar, although I don’t underestimate the creativity of some cosplayers,” Kieken said. . “The intention of Mass Effect Andromeda was to introduce new breeds that would still be in the cosplay realm, which is probably why crazier concepts were dropped.

Kieken even said that the two alien races that made it into Andromeda gradually moved to “cosplay safe territory” with the team trying to avoid the “jellyfish” types of aliens.

While it is hoped that some of these designs will find their way into the next Mass Effect project, fans of the series can look forward to interacting with the original set of aliens in the Legendary Edition of Mass Effect. in May.

Any advice to give us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.