Mass Effect 4 Needs To Abandon One Of The Series’ Defining RPG Elements

As the wait for continues, it is worth considering what makes the sci-fi RPG franchise stand out. One of the most important components of the first three games was the morality scale, a measurement of a player's good or bad reputation dependent on their previous choices. This scale determined what kind of person the game's protagonist, Commander Shepard, would be in the story and what options they would have available to them.

The scale was binary in nature, with the player gaining reputation points as either a paragon or a renegade. Paragon points would be earned through nice, peaceful, and generally positive actions, while renegade points would be awarded for risky, mean, or downright evil choices. As players got further down either path, they gained more impactful choices and dialogue options that reflected the nature of their character. But while the system gave a clear representation of the impact of player choices, it was also fairly limited in terms of what RPGs are able to do in the modern day.

From what we’ve seen in teasers, Mass Effect 4 might fix the issues of Andromeda by combining its story with the original trilogy in a new plot.

While technically not a definitive line between good and evil, the paragon and renegade options for Shepard allowed Mass Effect to give players clearly defined options to affect the world around them. Even if the exact wording of the dialogue option or action choice isn't clear, the alignment towards either binary pole made it obvious what the effect of the option would be. Not only that but by having points built up towards being either a paragon or a renegade, players can see in a straightforward manner the severity of their choices and their ideological alignment.

was by no means alone in employing a binary morality scale. Games like similarly display the player's morality as varying degrees of good and evil, and even newer games like operate on the same two-dimensional sliding scale. It is a standard and