The player assumes the role of either Scott or Sara Ryder, an inexperienced military recruit who joins the Initiative and wakes up in Andromeda following a sleeper ship journey.

For Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare incorporated a lighter tone than previous installments in the series, utilized open world elements, and placed an emphasis on exploration.

Following the game's disappointing commercial and critical reception, BioWare Montreal was merged into EA's Motive Studios and the Mass Effect franchise was temporarily put on hold.

[27] Combat in Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place in real-time, and unlike previous installments in the series, pausing the game to aim or use skills from a menu is no longer a feature.

[29] During action sequences, the player has direct control of Ryder from an over-the-shoulder perspective, who can move around the battlefield in a variety of ways, including a side-to-side dash or vertical leap into the air using a jetpack.

[40] Each race sends 20,000 citizens on a one-way, 600-year journey to Heleus Cluster located in Andromeda aboard their own sleeper ship, called an Ark, and selects a leader, known as a Pathfinder.

Once the races arrive at their destination in 2819, they help build the Nexus, a space station that serves as a center of government and diplomacy, a living area, and a base of operations for the Pathfinders.

[42] The protagonist of Mass Effect: Andromeda is, depending on player choice, either Sara or Scott Ryder (voiced by Fryda Wolff or Tom Taylorson, respectively).

[37] Squadmates in the game include Alec's second-in-command, Cora Harper (Jules de Jongh), a biotic specialist with intensive commando training; Liam Kosta (Gary Carr), a security expert who specializes in crisis response; Pelessaria "Peebee" B'Sayle (Christine Lakin), an asari gunslinger capable of biotic destabilization; Nakmor Drack (Stanley Townsend), a veteran krogan warrior of the Nakmor clan specializing in close combat; Vetra Nyx (Danielle Rayne), a female turian mercenary who excels in shielding and protection; and Jaal Ama Darav (Nyasha Hatendi), a resistance fighter of the newly introduced angara race.

Ryder proves the Initiative's good intentions by aiding the angara on two other planets, in addition to recruiting a member of their species, Jaal Ama Darav, to the Tempest's crew.

[59] The team also applied lessons that they learned from Mass Effect 3, which featured a controversial ending where some fans didn't feel as though their investment in the series' characters had paid off.

[24][60] As a result, they also decided to lighten the game's tone compared to previous installments in the series so that players could do side quests without feeling as though they were "letting the universe burn".

[61] Producer Mike Gamble felt that the game was BioWare's biggest yet in terms of content, but also noted that the company made an effort to make every planet and area memorable.

[62] To avoid the trap of making the player do side quests that felt tedious and insignificant–which was a common criticism of their previous title, Dragon Age: Inquisition–the company paid attention to what other games in the industry were doing, such as CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

[63] As late as 2014, BioWare planned to create hundreds of explorable planets by using procedural generation, but ultimately scrapped the idea because of the difficulty involved in implementing it as well as a lack of internal resources.

[56] Due in part to the decision to abandon this concept so late in development, the company found themselves playing catch-up, and ended up building most of the game during the ensuing 18 months.

[64] Mass Effect: Andromeda required a team of over 200 developers and, as reported by the Edmonton Journal, was given a total budget of C$100 million, which included marketing and research costs.

[67][68] In general, the game's development was plagued by internal instability,[56] with its lead writer, senior editor, and other members of its leadership team all departing from BioWare during production.

[70] Going into development, the company knew that the transition to Frostbite would be a difficult one, having already made the switch for Dragon Age: Inquisition, which proved to be extremely challenging as the engine was not designed with role-playing games in mind.

[29] It was important to BioWare that, for all gameplay modes in Mass Effect: Andromeda, the player stay moving and have a strategy behind every action as opposed to remaining in one location for the entire duration of an encounter.

[11] The original score of Mass Effect: Andromeda was composed by John Paesano, who was previously best known for his work on The Maze Runner films and Daredevil television series.

[75] In general, the game's soundtrack was inspired by films such as Blade Runner and aimed to combine organic and synthetic sounds, an approach that BioWare used to "represent the triumph of space exploration and the fear of the unknown.

"[76] A week after Mass Effect: Andromeda's North American release, BioWare announced that they were planning on making improvements to the game in response to critical feedback from fans.

[77] In April, the company unveiled a patch that focused on bug fixes and improvements to the player experience, including better lip-syncing and faster movement around the galaxy map.

[96] Originally, BioWare planned a beta that would allow players to help test the game's multiplayer mode prior to release, but it was eventually cancelled as the company felt that it was ultimately unnecessary.

[103][self-published source] The game's facial animations immediately became a topic of controversy, with players posting clips, images, and memes online that poked fun at its character movements.

[114] IGN remarked that the plot was sometimes derivative of prior games in the series, using the Remnant as an example, which they felt was simply another "long-dead civilization that's left advanced technology lying around".

[118] Reflecting on his experience with the game, Polygon's Arthur Gies opined that the story contained a number of worthwhile mysteries on the critical path and some "really interesting" optional content.

[130] Trusted Reviews noted that the alien worlds were detailed and busier to make it significantly more atmospheric thanks to improved geometry complexity, higher resolution shadows, and better quality horizon-based ambient occlusion.

[110] Character facial animations were often referenced as part of the problem, with Game Revolution's Aron Garst reflecting, "Andromeda is full of bugs and technical oddities.