Mass Effect's mechanics are divided between exploration, combat, and dialogue, with the latter containing most of the franchise's biggest choices. Whether it's Shepard deciding to spare or destroy an enemy, or Ryder dealing with the Kett, dialogue comprises a great deal of Mass Effect's role-playing elements. In the cases of both the original series and Andromeda, though, the dialogue systems BioWare used had pros and cons when it came to the choices they gave players.

The Paragon/Renegade system of Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 is iconic, but often gears players towards one of two binary paths rather than allowing them to construct their own characters. Conversely, Andromeda's system provides a greater variety of dialogue choices, but often at the expense of them not being especially impactful. It remains to be seen how Mass Effect 5 will handle its dialogue, but it will likely need to split the difference between the two approaches to create something new.

The Mass Effect Trilogy's Dialogue Stuck To A Binary

Building One Of Two Different Protagonists

The original Mass Effect trilogy used a binary system for its dialogue, providing players options that fell into the categories of Paragon or Renegade. Paragon decisions were usually selfless, empathetic, and peaceful to a fault, while Renegade choices were more ambitious, cold, and aggressive. While games often provide a neutral option when it comes to small choices, big decisions usually require players to choose one of the two extremes.

This basically allows players to build one of two different Commander Shepards: a valiant hero that puts others first, or a rebellious anti-hero that often makes brutal, even cruel choices for their own gain. And this approach works, but it doesn't leave a ton of room for different choices. Since players need to rack up Paragon or Renegade points to successfully perform more important actions, such as talking down Saren at the end of ME1, they are basically encouraged to play one way throughout every game.

The requirement for players to build up either Paragon or Renegade points was more important in the first and third games than in the second, which often saw those extreme options presented to every kind of Shepard.

This approach has its upsides, encouraging multiple playthroughs to see every possibility, but it was also limiting. Putting players into a box when it comes to their character options takes away from the role-playing element of a role-playing game. On top of that, given the inherent "good versus bad" nature of the Paragon/Renegade system, some of these decisions felt overly black and white in of their morality.

Andromeda Ditched The Binary, For Better And For Worse

A New System That Provides Greater Choice, At The Cost Of Impact

When it came to Mass Effect: Andromeda, the binary system was left by the wayside. There were still some choices that were obviously between selfless and selfish, or cruel and kind, but more often, dialogue revolved around four main personality components. Pathfinder Ryder's dialogue was split largely between logical, ionate, casual, and professional options, and the personality of the character would shift depending on which the player picked most often.

This is a really neat system in theory, if still a bit limited in only taking four aspects of personality into . But it was perhaps too ambitious for the RPG Andromeda ended up being, as this shaping of personality hardly ever mattered in the main story or during the biggest choices in the game. It felt like the system wasn't used to the extent that it could have been, and the attempt to do something that built upon the original trilogy's dialogue fell short, ultimately disappointing some fans of the franchise.

How Mass Effect 5 Could Combine Both Approaches

Taking Both Impact And Freedom Of Choice Into

The most important thing when it comes to dialogue choices in an RPG is that those choices actually matter to the story and world, and that they allow the player to decide what kind of person their character is. Even in games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or Cyberpunk 2077, where the protagonist is already somewhat established, the game presents dialogue and choices that allow the player to determine what kind of person they are. The original Mass Effect trilogy accomplished this, even if it was in a rather simplistic way.

A new game in the series could benefit from taking the importance of the original trilogy's choices, and combining it with the choice style of Andromeda. Having decisions presented as more morally gray by tying them to certain personality traits, rather than good or evil, could lead to more in-depth character customization. If the game once again uses Commander Shepard as the protagonist, the personality factors in question could even be relevant to the player's chosen backstory.

Pathfinder Ryder often felt like more of a pre-written character than Commander Shepard, partly because the trilogy actually allows players to choose a few elements of their backstory, which goes a long way toward making a character feel personal.

Then again, it's entirely possible to make a binary system like the Paragon/Renegade scale more interesting without expanding past two extremes. Take the honor system in Red Dead Redemption 2; while it is a binary, players have more freedom to slide up and down on the scale across the course of a playthrough, and to see how it cumulatively impacts their character. If Mass Effect 5 brings back this binary system, it should do so in a way that gives players more creative freedom, rather than putting them on one of two tracks for the entire runtime.