Exodus' writer wants to make the Mass Effect successor's side quests so good you won't care if you're rewarded for doing them

You know, you’d think that with decades worth of RPGs in existence, side quests would have been more or less figured out by now. And yet, there are still enough games releasing that seem more interested in going for quantity over quality. But for the devs over at Archetype Entertainment, the goal is to make the side quests in their upcoming sci-fi jaunt Exodus not feel just “tacked on.”

Speaking to GamesRadar, former Mass Effect writer and current Exodus narrative director Drew Karpyshyn explained that side quests are more about “trying to give players the chance to explore what they want to explore, that will add to the main story.” He continued, “We definitely don’t want you to feel like you’re doing it because you’re obligated, like ‘I need those three points to get my next level on this skill, so I guess I’ll do it’. We want side quests to be something you would do even if you weren’t getting a reward – you’re going to get rewards, of course, it’s a game, but we want you to feel like ‘This is something I’m interested in, this is something I want to explore.'”

Karpyshyn noted that in turn, Exodus’ side quests are tied into its themes and companions you may have. “It’s tied into interesting aspects of our game that maybe don’t get explored as much on the critical path, but you can see them,” he explains. For Karpyshyn it’s that age old tricky thing of deciding where is best for the team’s focus, as they know they can’t add whatever they want without the risk of the game becoming “thousands of hours [long], which sounds great in theory, but isn’t realistic.”

Personally, a game that’s thousands of hours long sounds like a nightmare to me, so, I’m happy to see some amount of restraint being enacted here. As it currently stands, though, it’ll be a while before we find out if Archetype succeed in making good side quests, as it’s not due out until some time in 2027.