BioWare reveals details on new Mass Effect Andromeda companion characters Liam and PeeBee

After unveiling an intense, action-packed cinematic trailer for Mass Effect Andromeda on N7 day (7 November), BioWare has revealed some interesting details about some of the new characters in its much-anticipated sci-fi RPG. During a cover story visit to BioWare's offices, developers shared some information with GameInformer about the upcoming game's new characters, Liam and Peebee, their skills and personality traits.

According to creative director Mac Walters, Liam is an ex-police officer who is part of the Pathfinder team and assists with security.

"Liam is the youthful, enthusiastic, and in some cases, the idealistic follower that you get," Walters told GameInformer. While Liam tends to react with frustration and anger when things don't quite go as planned, Walters says, "he's got Ryder's back". He adds that Liam is hopeful for humanity's new future.

Peebee, on the other hand, is a super smart Asari who is interested in alien technology, discovering new things in Andromeda and has a passion for adventure. Constantly interested in learning and studying new things, Walters says she can be a very frank, straight-forward character given the fact that she isn't a fan of social etiquette and formal behaviour.

"Her mind goes quickly as does her mouth," Walters said. "It's hard keeping up with her." He adds that although she is an Asari, she is very different from Liara.

"She's very bubbly," Walters explains. "Liara was very serious. Peebee will buck the norm at any given time. She's not about rules or culture or anything like that. She's not about teams or teamwork. Her role in this is helping you find out more about this alien technology."

Since N7 Day, Walters has continued to reveal bits of information about the upcoming game in response to fan enquiries on Twitter ranging from in-game relationships, balancing the RPG and shooter aspects of the game, its music and more.

Striving to create "fresh and unique" characters that are different from the previous roster of beloved favourites, the development team said they decided to cut a squadmate while working on Andromeda because the character felt too similar to some of series' earlier characters.

"Sometimes writers focus on the quirks or specific nuances of the character [thinking] that's what's going to make this character interesting," Walters said. "Honestly, it's a combination of a whole bunch of things, and what I say is rather than trying to make a really unique or memorable character through your writing, take a character who's relatable and put them in a really unique situation and see how they react. That's actually how I think you get the most interesting character development happening."

Mass Effect Andromeda was initially set to release in 2016. However, EA decided to delay the sequel and launch it during its fourth quarter in early 2017 to "make sure we deliver everything the game can and should be".

Mass Effect: Andromeda is set to release in spring 2017 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.