Mass Effect 4: 10 Things It Must Learn From Dragon Age: Inquisition
3. Side Quests Should Be Meaningful
Mass Effect 3 completely dropped the ball with its side quests. While previous games gave every side quest its due, the third game simplified most of them into fetch quests with no context. Shepard would unintentionally eavesdrop on someone complaining about their problem, your mission log would automatically update with where to go, and youd travel to a planet, scan it, pick it up, and return it. There was no who or why about most of them. Underwhelming would be putting it lightly. In contrast, Dragon Age: Inquisition not only has way more side quests, but every one of them is given proper treatment. Yes, many of them are also fetch quests, but at least Inquisition has you do more than hover over the icon of an area, press a button, and automatically pick it up. Every side quest requires effort on your part to traverse the world. This highlights why side quests are so important; they are supposed to give you reason to explore the world. Mass Effect 4 needs to follow Inquisitions footsteps and give the player a plethora of meaningful side quests. Every one of them should be accomplished in real time and exist as a means of fleshing out the world. This isnt new ground for Mass Effect, but given the unfortunate nature of the last games side quests, Inquisition should be the standard for which the next game follows.
