Mass Effect: Andromeda will reportedly feature more meaningful and impactful side quests, according to an interview with Mass Effect Producer Fabrice Condominas. He said the team learned a lot from BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition and from CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
"We are approaching the completionist aspect very differently because we've done and learned a lot from [Dragon Age:] Inquisition," Condominas said. "But we've also observed what other games have been doing, like The Witcher, and it was very important for us that the quantity of scope doesn’t downgrade the quality of whatever you are doing there.”Fans of both series can note the obvious structural differences between the two titles, but for those unfamiliar with either, Dragon Age: Inquisition has the player establish a home base that they venture out from when they need to go on quests. The player and party are dropped into a large sandbox area full of points to explore and quests to complete, many of them being collect so much of such item or kill ten of this monster, like an MMO. The Witcher 3 is an open-world role-playing game in which the narrative guides the player through towns and hub areas across the map. There are often a finite of side quests in the area proportional to the amount of time the main story occupies in that space and focused on making each side quest have more story beats and meaningful ones generally.
While the open-world structure was new to The Witcher series in the third installment, the narrative strength of the main and side quests have always been a highlight of the games. Even if Mass Effect: Andromeda isn't fully open-world, as interplanetary travel with only some explorable areas on certain planets suggests, it can benefit from more deliberate story telling. Roaming a sandbox area to find items for a fetch quest or to clear a dungeon has its appeal, but The Witcher series has frequently succeeded at giving a compelling reason for doing these tasks. Once completed, the effects of the quests are often noticeable in the story or the in-game world -- and thus much more impactful.
Mass Effect: Andromeda releases on March 21 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Will Mass Effect: Andromeda feature design elements inspired by The Witcher, or is it just talk to get even more buzz around the upcoming and high profile release? Let me know in the comments below.
