Mass Effect: Andromeda to Ditch Fetch Quests for Open Exploration

Following the first gameplay glimpse at PlayStation Meeting earlier this month, more information about BioWare’s forthcoming sci-fi RPG, Mass Effect: Andromeda, is starting to emerge. According to BioWare, Andromeda is set to ditch one of the staples of its role-playing games, including previous Mass Effect titles, the Dragon Age trilogy, and even Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: the fetch quest.

“We learned that there were some quests in Dragon Age that didn’t resonate and were kind of flat – fetch quests and stuff,” Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare, told PC Gamer magazine (Issue 296, via WCCFTech). “The nice thing is, you take those lessons, you package them all up, and you talk to the Mass Effect team and say, ‘These are the things you should do, these are the things you shouldn’t do.’ And the Mass Effect team get the pencils out and they build all that into it.”

The fetch quest has become such an RPG trope that its absence from Andromeda is a brave (yet welcome) move. Rather than send the player on what effectively amounts to dogsbodying for NPCs, BioWare hopes to instead focus on exploration to evoke a sense of awe and wonder.

“Going to Andromeda is intended to, and will, invoke this incredible sense of wonder and incredible sense that everything right over the horizon is new to me,” Flynn added. “That’s a rare feeling in our lives today, but I think when you look at people, we all crave that feeling. We all want it. One of the advantages of going to Andromeda is that it’s a new galaxy so not everything is defined, and you wouldn’t expect everything to look the same as it should back home.”

Mass Effect: Andromeda is expected for release during Q1 of 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.