Mass Effect: Andromeda looks set to continue using many of the features that made the original trilogy so successful, but there’s one major component that won’t be returning for the next entry in the sci-fi series. Paragon and Renegade options – decisions that the player’s Commander Shepard could make during conversations that determined his or her moral leanings – will be done away with in Andromeda, with BioWare instead opting to go with a new system entirely to replace it.
According to comments made by creative director Mac Walters to Official Xbox Magazine (via GamesRadar), player choice in Andromeda will focus around whether you disagree or agree with that various characters you engage in conversation with. He said:
What we have now is based more around agreeing and disagreeing. The reason I like that is because in the trilogy it’s like, ‘I’m gonna play Paragon,’ and then you know which way you’re moving the stick on every conversation. You don’t have to think about it, because you’re just going to hit Paragon every time.
Walters certainly isn’t wrong. Despite both paths offering vastly different dialogue options, I often found myself choosing a Paragon response on my ‘good’ Shepard playthrough even if I didn’t agree with it, purely because I wanted to follow a path I’d decided upon after starting a new game. Walters believes the new system in Andromeda will feel far more natural and offer considerably more flow than simply aligning oneself with a clear cut good or bad affinity.
I think that gets back to that more traditional role-playing sort of feeling which is less about ‘Do I want to be good or bad,’ and more about ‘How do I want to express myself.
BioWare’s obviously given the new system a lot of thought, so I’m sure the new system will turn out to be just as – if not more so – interesting as Shepard’s choices, and it’ll be interesting to see how drastically they change the outcome of the narrative.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is out March 21 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Published: Feb 9, 2017 09:02 am