Mass Effect 3 has same-sex romances

By Robert Purchese Published 16 May, 2011

Who will be the male option?

Unlike straight-as-an-arrow Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 will embrace same-sex romances.

There won't be new characters to fall in love with and entice into your cabin, however - only the faces you've met previously.

"Happy to confirm Mass Effect 3 supports wider options for love interests including same-sex for male and female characters, reactive to how you interact with them in-game," confirmed Mass Effect overlord Casey Hudson on Twitter.

(Do not read on if you're painstakingly avoiding spoilers.)

Hudson expanded on the topic of Mass Effect 3 romance talking with PC Gamer.

"We're not introducing any new characters that are going to be love interests. There's some new characters, but generally it's going to be the interplay between the characters from 2 and the returning ones from 1, and then Liara as the one that's... either asexual or omnisexual, depends on how you look at it," explained Hudson.

"If you had a Mass Effect 1 romance and you didn't have a Mass Effect 2 romance, so you stay true to the character from the first game, there's a scene where you look at the picture of that character and that's essentially the romance scene in Mass Effect 2.

"When people realised that we were thinking about that kind of thing, and that we were going to reflect those kinds of decisions, it's like wow, the game actually knows that I didn't cheat on my Mass Effect 1 love interest.

"If it knows that," he added, "then it probably knows other stuff that it will reflect. Then that means I need to think about that stuff [when] talking to characters and making decisions and the like."

Who will the male same-sex love option be?

Mass Effect 1 famously proffered Asari female Liara forwards as a potential lesbian partner. Other BioWare games Dragon Age 1 and Dragon Age 2 also embraced same-sex romance paths. Mass Effect 2, however, did not.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (51) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • midnight_walker #1 1 year ago

    Who will be the male option?

    The smart money's on Kaidan.

  • jablonski #2 1 year ago

    New Shepard clothing unlocked: Pink hotpants.

  • Toffeli #3 1 year ago

    After seeing The Witcher 2, Bioware's dryhumping looks even more silly.

  • Gambit1977 #4 1 year ago

    Does someone out there actually buy Bioware games for this?

    Dragon Age II had a strange one where you didn't even try, it just made you if you said something to console Meryl :-/

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #5 1 year ago

    Thats all well and good, but wheres the Midget relationships!

  • Zander #6 1 year ago

    That's well gay init

  • LHH #7 1 year ago

    whoopy fucking doo this is easily the most important aspect of ME3 which will decide whether I purchase it or not

  • Markitron #8 1 year ago

    I hope they dont go too nuts, the sex options in Dragon Age 2 kinda got out of hand. Ended up being unrealistic (and in a fantasy RPG thats saying something)

  • the_dudefather #9 1 year ago

    I refuse to play this game unless I can be a robosexual and sleep with a geth

  • styles_dg #10 1 year ago

    What happened to their stance of that not being compatible with the story they wanted to tell? Backflip much? .....I guess they really do want to "expand the target audience" in ME3. Whatever will pull in more money, right?

  • Markitron #11 1 year ago

    @the_dudefather

    Seriously, dont rule that out. Legion is in the game and Bioware did put a robosexual woman into the original KotOR. It could happen

  • RodHull #12 1 year ago

    Call me old fashioned but the reason why the Mass Effect series has given me so much enjoyment has always been the combat and exploration. The ridiculously adolescent sex conquests were dealt with in a much more fun and silly way in the Fable series. I applaud BioWare for allowing people to play a game based on their own sexual preferences (or fantasies) but quite frankly I've always been perplexed at developers putting sex into video games. It's inclusion into Heavy Rain was particularly embarrassing and heavy handed.

  • organica #13 1 year ago

    Wrex. Brutal stuff. Shepherd will lose a limb, minimum.

  • The_Inquisitor #14 1 year ago

    I have a female character, so it's win-win for me. :)

  • Bealsy #15 1 year ago

    I'm going for special guest celebrity Louis Sssshpence

  • woodyrulesok #16 1 year ago

    Well scissor me timbers.

  • dr_zoidthrob #17 1 year ago

    "Mass Effect 2 didn't"... and I spent SO MUCH TIME as a female Shepard, trying to get it on with the PA.

    Damn.

  • addugg #18 1 year ago

    But he isn't gay. Are we led to belive that the war turned him gay? It works in Dragon Age with new charaters who you can make gay but it doesn't with pre existing guys.

  • nuanimal #19 1 year ago

    Although its not going to be the most important aspect of ME3 that makes or breaks the game, its interesting to have included.

    Homosexuality in other media has been around for ages, but for video games it still seems to feel like a novelty (apart from the budding romance between Marcus and Dom in Gears). I think in passing Fable allowed you to court same-sex partners right?

    I'm sure someone at EG towers will follow with a homosexuality-in-video-games article, but I for one welcome this.

  • Whitster #20 1 year ago

    After shagging the hot alien chick in ME then the hot human in ME2, I'm hardly going to jump into bed with Garrus now am I Bioware?

    That'd be like Kirk waiting until The Undiscovered Country to poke Sulu!

  • gallow #21 1 year ago

    Who's got time for romance when there is a galaxy to save?

  • LHH #22 1 year ago

    Fuck it, I'm off to the Bioware Social forums to complain as to why Joker can't jerk off over EDI's instrument panel

  • richarddavies #23 1 year ago

    YES!! Now I can act out the dark thoughts that dwel deepl in my mind when im not with the missus.

  • Kanselier #24 1 year ago

    My proper character FemShep went for Jacob. That playa is smooth.
    My ManShep went all freaky deaky with Jack.

    I tapped that and saved the galaxy. Twice.

  • Spanky #25 1 year ago

    Strange how they're trying to make it more adult but comes off as juvenile as it limits it to the most crippled soft core pish. "We think you're mature enough to do this but not enough to see krogan vs human 1 on 1" Might as well get the jetpack dinosaurs, mecha hitlers and fart jokes out. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

    Can't sheppard just have a wank? Whilst the rest of the crew get it on in a big lube orgy.

  • Moribundman #26 1 year ago

    @midnight_walker Deinitely the obvious money's on Kaiden (if he's still alive) but I also agree with other posters and previous Bioware statements that they'd established Shepard as a hetrosexual until the sexuality topic EXPLODED around Dragon Age (and to a greater - or certainly a more full-on - extent DA2).

    If they deal with this less clumsily than DA2 then it could be interesting. If someone's played all of ME1 and 2 with no love interest and throughout the whole trilogy first decides to move romantically towards this love interest as a gay Shepard it should be interesting. TBH s/he's had every option to switch from a lady-like Asari to a hetro human man or woman or a human woman to a Quarian, or a human man to a Turian/Drell...

    Maybe Blasto the Hanar will tell you his seret name... ;-)

  • Nylz #27 1 year ago

    @#17 - I lol'd

  • mornegroth #28 1 year ago

    I just hope Grunt won't start hitting up on me. That would be... Awkward.

  • irve77 #29 1 year ago

    Hate to say it but the female sheperd can have a relationship with Kelly the PA.
    But please bioware ... please ... if your going to do "sex" scenes just do the same as ME1 naked bodies but you don't see anything rather than the rubbish dryhumping from ME2 .. if you don't think you can get away with it then simple don't include it simple as !

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #30 1 year ago

    /breaks out the KY

  • Caimbeul #31 1 year ago

    " The smart money's on Kaidan." - Nope, he's dead in mine.

    I bet its a Krogan...

  • mrpsb #32 1 year ago

    Intergalactic sex pest

  • apoc_reg #33 1 year ago

    I'm so bored of Biowares false romances, when it came up as part of an interesting story arch then it was great. But now its just shoe horned in for the sake of it. DA2 felt like the biggest battle was not getting r@ped by my party than the bad guys.

    I wanna here about the RPG element sand other refinements not dumb romance options.

  • yoomazir #34 1 year ago

    male Shepard x Anderson? *vomits everywhere* :-P

  • Tryhard #35 1 year ago

    Do they have closets in spaceships to come out from?

  • The-Bodybuilder #36 1 year ago

    I want human-Reaper sex.
    Shephard and Sovereign.

  • silversun #37 1 year ago

    Just want really comment on this , i know other people view may be different but i feel these parts of the game are not important at all , i am playing witcher atm and the bits in that game like that are not important , is it fan service ? well anyway it not main reason i play the game is all i want to say , i play for the overall journey of the game. if the relationship makes sense then add it , im still not sure why i tried blue eye girl quest in witcher in every different way i could but i was still not satisfied with the outcome of that quest in the witcher , i wanted let girl be free but i didnt real want sleep with the vampire females to have to do that.
    Ok lol enough rambling.

  • tyrant1 #38 1 year ago

    Im pleased for any gay gamers this applies to, as its good for everyone to get equal treatment, but just as with the female-female, its mainly about the same sex fanboys/fangirls.

    I mean, I saw DAII, and then game was blatantly just about pandering to the slash fangirls.

    But still, more options for more people I guess and all that. Considering ME2 sucked badly because instead of focusing on lots of options throughout the game, it mainly focused on "look at me, Im a flash TPS!" If they are finally prepared to write in same sex male romances, hopefully thats a sign romances will improve across the board.

    When done correctly, the romances really add to the story, and so far in this trilogy only the ME1 romances have come close but still fell short.

  • TeaFiend #39 1 year ago

    Is anyone surprised? I figured this was quite expected.

  • metalangel #40 1 year ago

    *inevitable Elcor "Orgasmic: do me harder, human" joke here*

  • Mentat_Idaho #41 1 year ago

    It's clearly going to be Garrus.

  • kupocake #42 1 year ago

    Clearly Kaidan/Ashley for same-sex love interest. It makes perfect canonical sense: Shepard spared them from death on virmire and it makes sense for that to be because of un-declared love on Shep's side (and equally true of any Ashley / Femshep combo you may have going).

    Shame both characters have all the charm of a paint drying attendant.
    Edited by kupocake at 16/05/11 @ 13:19

  • MattyD #43 1 year ago

    I'm cool with this and everything but OH GOD THE FAN FICTION :o

  • Hieronymus #44 1 year ago

    Let's just hope its clearly shown which dialogue options are pointed to same-sex situations, I tend to be a true saint in Morality games, so let's hope my kindness towards characters will not result in a male character slapping my butt..

    Anyway one of my favorite aspects of Mass Effect is the transition of choices in to later games, I really hope a lot of ME1 decisions follow up into ME3 to experience some really cool "Why did I do that all that time ago?!" situations, can't wait!

  • ichobi #45 1 year ago

    Agree with everone about the Childish romance. Bioware should at least play the Witcher to see how romance and sex in game are properly done in RPG, not just talk to someone every turn you board the ship and choose dialogue option best fit the target romance. Do that 6-10 times and get laid? Lol wut?

  • makariel #46 1 year ago

    Will it be the Dragon Age-approach of turning everyone bisexual?

  • GaryHoward #47 1 year ago

    Oh, Ashley, I would rather kiss our newest crew member, George Takei. [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pWriV8i7pM
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pWriV8i7pM
    [/link]

  • alcides #48 1 year ago

    Swordfights in a space opera? Picture me rummaging for my blade!

  • Inmediasress #49 1 year ago

    Well I did predict in another post that after the disaster that DA2 was ME3 would have some uninspired and bland romance, hell maybe even some tentacle porn.

    Bioware does love the ol raunchy overused sex themes helps to sell the product for teens in puberty and of course to cover up problems with the story or the game in general by "look it's boobies".
    Edited by Inmediasress at 16/05/11 @ 16:53

  • DrStrangelove #50 1 year ago

    It's not that I really care (unless you can give Shepard a rainbow-suit, that'd be awesome), but kudos to Bioware for this display of equality and showing respect for gay people by doing the extra effort this requires for alternate dialogue/storylines.

    I'm just afraid the game might be banned in certain countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran or the USA.

  • Gunship #51 1 year ago

    Romance is a great idea in principle. The problem is, BioWare writes the stuff for 13 year old virgins, and so we see the emo 2D all-artificially bi, dryhumping stuff. BioWare... please put some 3D complexity into these people/aliens - a good start would be to get rid of the Dragon Age 2 "heart" emoticon in the dialog wheel that automates the process. Also, it's OK for one or two characters to be straight.