While the gaming world is still reeling from the news of a new Bioware IP that won’t be an RPG coming in 2018, there was something revealed for the Mass Effect fanatics that got a bit lost in the shuffle.
A nearly complete dossier has now emerged on a first official companion in the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda, which moves the sci-fi RPG series forward hundreds of years after the original trilogy’s conclusion.
While we’ll all miss a certain singing Salarian and the scarred-but-noble Garrus, it looks like there’s some very interesting characters coming our way in the series’ fourth main entry.
Just a few days ago a new cinematic trailer came online that showed off several of the companions you can recruit while flying around in the Tempest and saving the galaxy as part of the Pathfinder team. We’ve unquestionably seen most of the party members at this point, but full details on any single character have been scarce — until now with biotic commando Cora Harper.
New Companion: Cora Harper
Wielding a deadly shotgun and biotic charge weapon combo, Cora Harper is an “operations specialist” (read: close combat killing machine) with known ties to the Systems Alliance, Talein’s Daughters, and Andromeda Initiative political groups, which are all still a bit shrouded in mystery at this point.
With the details that have leaked, it’s been all but confirmed that Cora will be a romance option for your character, although it’s still a bit up in the air what that system will look or what in-game effect that will have when Andromeda drops in March (as other contributors have noted, the romance system could use a bit of an overhaul).
Who Is Lieutenant Cora Harper?
Based on the trailer, this primary companion looks like she takes charge and does what needs to be done, and we know from previous games that biotic-focused characters can be exceedingly deadly.
Since she served with Asari commandos in active combat missions prior to joining Pathfinder and looking for habitable worlds, it’s a good bet Cora’s going to hold her own in a fight and possibly even be your primary damage dealer.
Not everyone is crazy about Cora’s look going on though with those emo-style swoopy bangs (just picture the addition of a nose ring and gauged ears) but after giving her a second look, I’m now idly wondering if she’s not about to ask for my manager. Maybe we’ll have the option to change outfits and hairstyles this time around?
There’s a possible Cora connection with previous games worth exploring that has fans buzzing. Since we know Andromeda takes place hundreds of years in the future in a totally different area of space this may just be coincidence, but take a look at that last name: Harper.
We’ve actually seen that name before with the smoking Illusive Man who ran the Cereberus group all the way back in Mass Effect 2. Although never revealed as such in the game itself, in the Mass Effect: Evolution comics the Illusive Man’s name is revealed as Jack Harper. The BioFan Twitter account quickly made that connection with the photo below.
It’s not outside the realm of possibility, since we know there’s some correlation between the games as a character says “we’ve been waiting 600 years for this” in the trailer. When you take into account how Shepard was cloned in the second game, all those hundreds of intervening years might not mean much.
What do you think of Andromeda’s first official companion reveal, and do you plan on bringing Cora along for story missions and side quests?
Stay tuned for the full Mass Effect Andromeda experience to officially arrive March 21st, 2017 and keep a look out for more new character info to drop in the intervening weeks!
