It's already known that Mass Effect 3 will be focusing on a smaller team with deeper relationships, but many likely didn't expect just how focused BioWare are on achieving that balance: Mass Effect Executive Producer Casey Hudson has now revealed that the only Romance options in the end of the trilogy will be with existing squadmates from the first two games, and will focus on the consequences of your romantic choices made previously.

The decision is sure to keep players pinned to an interesting and dramatic scenario: Many who had romances in the first Mass Effect changed their goals in the second and so, will have to justify their actions and repair relationships in Mass Effect 3 when the casts from both games intertwine at last. As Hudson goes on to say, it's all up to the player to ensure that the squad ultimately works together, despite any broken hearts:

"This is more about how you, if you’re a new player, how you start these romances with the existing characters. If you’ve had relationships with previous characters, then it’s your opportunity to resolve those. And again, it’s in the context of a ‘World War II’-type setting, so you don’t really know if you’re going to survive, or what kind of a world is going to live beyond the story. So it’s kind of that situation.

But we also have some interesting things happening, where you’ve got Ashley and Kaiden from the first game, you’ve got Liara, and there’s sort of a love triangle there. And then we gave people a bunch of new characters. People said “Well, I just want my Mass Effect 1 characters, and I’m not interested in any of these characters.” But then a lot of people had romances with those characters, and now the fun is bringing back some of those characters from Mass Effect 1 and putting them back in the mix, and looking at what you did in Mass Effect 2 and bringing some… interesting scenarios around those things."

Hudson explains that those who stayed loyal to their Mass Effect 1 relationships mostly didn't realize they did, in fact, get a little romance scene in the second - albeit a lot more subtle than the alternatives. Remember when you looked longingly into your the picture of your love interest in the Captain's Room before embarking on the Suicide Mission? That signified everything, and your loyalty is set to make a big impact when said characters return for action. And even at that point, you'll have a lot to do to repair that long-distance, "thought you were dead" kind of thing that happened for a while.

Just because they're not introducing new characters for the purpose of Romance doesn't mean you won't meet a plethora of interesting friends and adversaries in Mass Effect 3 - you can check some of the incoming storyline and such here. With the game set for a broader appeal, there's going to be enough fresh faces mixed in with the old to appeal to the general market that BioWare is going for.

What do you think about the decision to limit Romances to existing options? Who is your love interest - and for that matter, what made you like them?

Mass Effect 3 is set to be released in early 2012 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Source: PC Gamer