Even though the game is planned for release next year, we don't know a whole lot about Mass Effect: Andromeda. Certainly not as much as we would like to.
What we do know, however, is that the game, much like the rest of EA's library, will run on the Frostbite 3 engine. In fact, in an interview with Xbox Magazine, Bioware Creative Director Mac Walters claims that Mass Effect: Andromeda is really making the best out of the new engine:
"We're pushing the boundaries of what Frostbite can do and what Mass Effect can do," Walters told the magazine. "The quality of the character animations is at an all-time high for us, and that's great because it means expressiveness, emotion and a connection with the player."
Furthermore, Walters explained that the team likes to keep things grounded, even though they're working on a sci-fi game. That way the contents of the game remain realistic and believable, and you don't really have to look beyond our own backyard to find wondrous things:
"There are so many amazing things on earth. We'll look at some images of a glowing cave somewhere in the world and be like, 'That exists? That's here on Earth?' and then we tweak it a little bit, and now it's alien, right? Sometimes its just a colour-shift, or we might look at some of the plants hidden in the Amazon that were discovered in the last year, or something like that. We use all that inspiration, because you need to balance the relatable with the original."
The specific release date for Mass Effect: Andromeda is not set beyond sometime early next year, but the formats are PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.