The Mass Effect franchise gained notoriety as exclusively single-player games with some of the best branching story ever seen. While ME3 continued to carry this torch (mostly), it also shook things up by including a new multiplayer mode. Some fans of the game's previous focus on quality campaign mode were initially apprehensive about this change, but Mass Effect 3's multiplayer experience turned out to be an exciting co-op gameplay that made the game infinitely more replayable beyond the initial campaign completion.

Likewise, Mass Effect: Andromeda is including a multiplayer mode, and fans of ME3's multiplayer will be happy to learn that they haven't messed with the formula too much, only tweaking elements here and there to make it a bigger and more diverse experience. The newest video in BioWare's Mass Effect Gameplay Series details what fans can expect.

The primary game mode is a form of the familiar survival co-op, where teams of four players work together to fight off ever-growing waves of enemies while completing a series of objectives prior to reaching an extraction point.

At launch, players will have the option to select from 25 different character kits, including species from both Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. There are no class restrictions on weapons, so every single character can be equipped with a loadout comprised of weapons and tech from the Milky Way, Heleus Cluster, and the Remnant. Players can level up their characters as they collect experience points, and most weapons and technology can be upgraded with other rewards collected from successful missions.

In addition to survival mode, Andromeda also offers strike team missions, which loosely tie into the campaign mode. While they don't include dialogue or story elements, they basically function as side missions, giving players opportunity to amass experience and resources for use in the campaign. Strike team missions can be completed with AI characters or online with other humans, but the latter will probably be preferred to tackle the occasional "Apex mission", which might be more difficult to handle with strictly AI teammates. Strike team missions are accessed right from the Tempest (the new Normandy), so they're integrated into solo play almost seamlessly, allowing players to take a short break from pursuing story objectives without having to close out of the campaign to sit in a matchmaking waiting room.

To encourage players to participate in multiplayer, live daily challenges and reward multipliers will be available on a regular basis. While this can supplement the single-player experience, it's fortunately not an essential element, so players that don't care to participate in multiplayer activities can simply ignore that component of the game without suffering any handicap of the single player experience.

NEXT: Mass Effect: Andromeda – Watch the First 13 Minutes

Source: Mass Effect