Mass Effect: Andromeda solves the gender question

“Female or male?” This question has plagued Mass Effect players since the start of the series. Which gender should a player make their Commander Shepard? Which is correct? For a long time, the official marketing materials from BioWare featured only the male Shepard, so it was assumed that he was the default. Female Shepard fans rejoiced once the studio began using their favored option in pre-sale imagery. All along, the argument has raged. FemShip is too bossy. MaleShep is too generic. Thankfully, Mass Effect: Andromeda presents a solution. In the latest PlayStation Access, BioWare’s Mac Walters revealed that the male and female versions of the new player avatar, Ryder, are both canonically correct. In fact, they are siblings.

“What a lot of people don’t know – little surprise here – is that these two are brother and sister and they both exist in the game world at the same time. If you’re playing as the sister Ryder – female Ryder – your brother is somewhere in the universe.”

You can watch the full gameplay demo of Mass Effect: Andromeda from the PlayStation Meeting here.