Mass Effect 3: The Roadmap to Love and Happiness

In a new entry on the BioWare Blog, Mass Effect 3 lead writer Mac Walters discusses the amount of work the team has put into the game’s “memorable moments”, “dynamic interactions”, and “personal relationships” to ensure that they’re above and beyond anything we’ve seen in the series yet.

Memorable Moments: Conversations with characters in Mass Effect 3 are more than just opportunities to gain information; they’re designed to be unforgettable. I challenged each writer to make every moment memorable. The moments didn’t have to be long, and they didn’t require a lot of words, but they had to mean something to the character, to Shepard, and hopefully to you. One practical way we did this was to make sure there were no fixed locations for these moments. They could literally happen anywhere. And preferably in a place that meant something to the characters involved.

Dynamic Interactions: Now, more than ever, the relationships in Mass Effect evolve naturally. Characters react to your choices and actions, including, of course, romantic ones. We give you the opportunity to make every interaction mean something in the long term. It’s not simply about completing a conversation to get on to the next one; it’s about how you interact during each conversation. And it’s about each choice you make to evolve that relationship.

Personal Relationships: In the past, you often became (closer) to the characters of Mass Effect simply through the exchange of information. That discussion could be about almost anything, but one topic was was rarely discussed outside of a final climactic encounter: Shepard’s relationship to that character. In Mass Effect 3, one of the topics that will come up for those who are looking for it is Shepard’s personal relationship with those closest to the commander. For some characters in Mass Effect 3, it’s been an emotional roller coaster ride with Shepard, and they’ve got something to say about that.