Mass Effect Andromeda: 10 New Gameplay Features That Will Change Everything

Mass Effect has always contained boss fights of a sort, but they’re mostly presented as barriers to progress or typical endgame adversaries. If there’s one thing Andromeda does look to be taking from Dragon Age, it’s the concept of optional bosses - high level enemies that may be encountered at lower levels, but should be avoided until they can be beaten.

This is a pretty traditional fantasy RPG staple, seen most recently in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, but it could go a long way to making the wildlife on Andromeda’s worlds feel hostile and unpredictable.

Speaking to Game Informer, producer Mike Gamble said: “You’ll find creatures and encounters that are so far over-levelled to where you’re at naturally on these areas, and you can tell right away. We have a lot of other things like that, where you’ll know that you’re not ready for this, but you’ll know you want to come back.”

This seems reminiscent of the Thresher mMaw from the original Mass Effect, which could be encountered by chance on one of the game’s many barren planets. When the player chose to investigate ruined outposts, they could also expect to be greeted by a vicious thresher maw bursting from the ground. It may have been a one-off trick, but it really made exploring future planets feel like a dangerous task.