Do important people and things look important?

Question

Do primary objectives/people have a visual cue that lets you know you are about to embark on a major event (potentially missing uncompleted content)?

I know I can go reread my journal to figure out who I am supposed to be talking to but therein lies the dilemma. I tend to try collect all of the quests and events I can in one area before I go and attempt to complete ANY of them, the list can get pretty long. I then review the options I have and choose the missions I think will advance the story in the way I want. I don't want to start/complete missions on accident and preclude myself from other more interesting/in-character missions.

There are similar questions that deal with specific branching story lines and points of no return but I am wondering if any important people, major/minor quest givers, quest completion points, etc. LOOK different than one another.

Answer 1

In general, important people and items stand out from the background. If at any point you get lost, pressing the map button (on pc, this is V) can help find your way. Additionally, important people in friendly areas (like the Citadel) are often talking over the crowd loud enough to catch players' attention.

While in a combat zone, this will highlight a point of interest such as a quest objective.

In a friendly area, it will bring up a map with all nearby people of interest listed)

Answer 2

One of the biggest differences between Mass Effect 2 and 3 is that the distance that interactable items will start glowing (indicating thaty you can interact with them) is much reduced.

Dave has written a good answer when it comes to finding interactable objects, but I think I have a better idea for finding relevant conversations. (Sorry Dave :D )

Simply turn on Captions! Important conversations will show up as captions over the ambient noise, so it's easy to find out what's important and what can be safely ignored!