Over the weekend, the video game industry descended upon Boston, Massachusetts for PAX East 2017. Mass Effect: Andromeda was among the upcoming releases represented at the event, with its creative director Mac Walters on hand to detail just how sophisticated the game's dialogue system will be compared to previous instalments.

Walters noted that Mass Effect 3 had around 670 unique characters that could speak to the protagonist. On the other hand, Mass Effect: Andromeda will apparently have over 1,200 speaking characters.

The game's producer, Michael Gamble, would later add some further insight to which characters are included in that cast of 1,200. Apparently minor speaking roles like shopkeepers are not included, but "low-level" characters one rung above are included in that figure.

Walters also stated that when the amount of dialogue options are taken into account, there's as much dialogue in Andromeda as Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 combined. Despite the fact that the new game is making a clean break from the original trilogy, it looks set to be just as epic an adventure as its predecessors.

It's no surprise that BioWare has put so much effort into making the game's dialogue as good as it can be, given the prominence of conversation in the series' gameplay and the all-star cast that has been assembled for Andromeda. In recent weeks, Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani and Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer have both been confirmed to appear in the game, playing a Salarian politician and the ship's medical officer, respectively.

Mass Effect: Andromeda will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on March 21, 2017.

Source: PC Gamer