VG247 recently spoke to Mass Effect: Andromeda's producer Fabrice Condominas about the highly-anticipated sci-fi sequel, and during the interview Condominas reassured fans that there's still plenty of choice and plenty to see, as with the other games.
When asked whether fans will have to play through the game multiple times to discover all content, Condominas said: "If they want to see everything, then yes. But the idea is to get away from the more judgmental position. This is where the binary thing opens. The choices you make influence the story and the plot and all that. But the idea is to get rid of the A versus B, because that's how you create the idea that one thing is better than the other."
"When everything is more nuanced, and the consequences of the choice are less obvious than going Paragon or Renegade, it's focusing on the journey. It's focusing on your journey and the choices you make now."
"If you fix yourself goals like, I want to [see every possible outcome of every] loyalty mission, then obviously you have to replay the game. But if you knew in the Paragon/Renegade system that a character was definitely Paragon, then you'd go through full Paragon in order to have it. But again that's the gamification, and it has a judgmental aspect to it that we're trying to get away from."
"The idea is: you've got the freedom to make the choices you want, it has consequences and it builds your story. So you will replay only if you want a different story."
Condominas was then asked whether it would be frustrating for people who may well get locked out of options they won't have had obvious cues to see, to which he responded: "Maybe, but if that frustrates you, you probably shouldn't play the game. Because that's exactly what it is about. There's no way you'll know all the possibilities and all the paths you can take."
"For the first time in my career - I've been doing games for 15 years - this is the first time in my career I haven't played myself through all the possibilities in a game I'm going to release. Just because it's too much - it's too time consuming."
Also, when talking about the big, impactful decisions from previous games and whether they'd be present here, Condominas said: "Absolutely. Situations like that exist in Andromeda." Are choices and impactful decisions the crux of the Mass Effect appeal, or are these just added bonuses to another key feature?