Mass Effect Andromeda Review: 3 Ups & 8 Downs

3. Dialogue System Is Somehow More Limiting

"We're giving you four options", they said. "Paragon and Renegade were too limiting", they said.

Well, sadly, the new 'emotion-based dialogue system' is somehow even more limiting than before, because at no point does it feel like you're affecting the story, or relationships with your surrounding mission-givers. Think about it - at least when you were choosing a fundamentally 'good' or 'bad' thing to say or do, these had obvious repercussions in the moment and long term, as such seismic events that could only go one way or another and were easy to address later on.

By contrast, at best you'll get four emotional responses to any given situation, but they're all variations on the same basic sentiment that keeps the story moving. Even if you vehemently tell people you're not interested in finding X number of items or don't want to do X thing, they'll continue as if you've agreed regardless, or you'll still get the mission prompt in your quest log.

And that was at best - 99% of Andromeda's dialogue options go between two choices: Casual and Professional. Star-Lord or Picard. New Kirk or Old Kirk, completely disregarding the very idea that this system was going to offer more choice in the long run.

Oh, and the 'impulse' choices that meant you could interrupt people and pull off contextual actions like punching, shooting or shouting at someone? I experienced, ooh, about four, in the 40 hours I played.