Everyone has their favorite space waifus and husbandos in the previous Mass Effect games, and Andromeda romance options will be following suit by providing multiple characters to horizontal tango with throughout the game, but Mac Walters, Creative Director for Mass Effect Andromeda, has said that the new romantic interactions will be much more nuanced and closer to how real relationships develop. Before anyone gets worried that the mechanics they are familiar with have been scrapped, know that Walters described this as an expansion on the preexisting systems from the earlier games.

“We had a strong foundation for how [romance] was working. For me, typically in the trilogy it was a bit formulaic. You’d talk to them and then get to that one point in the game where there was no going back and romance was going to happen. That’s not real life. There should be some people who just want to hop in the sack immediately. There should people who are interested in a long-term relationship. There are people who aren’t interested in romance at all.”

The first thing that BioWare is retooling in the Mass Effect Andromeda romance system focus on character needs and desires. This doesn’t just mean that you need to pick the right dialogue options to get someone in the sack. Instead, depending on the individual character, they might want different things out of their relationships. Some may want to bang it out after a quick handshake, whereas others may be looking for commitment and monogamy. This allows the player to decide if this person really is right for them. You may find one character attractive or interesting, but you don’t want to deal with their emotional baggage, or another may be exciting and fun, but you’re looking for something more along the lines of companionship.

Walters also expects interactions in general to be more colorful. He explained the teams expectation that, a non-romance character should still be as interesting to interact with as one that is DTF.

“Think of the relationship moment with Garrus in Mass Effect 3 where you [shoot bottles off the Citadel]. Does it always have to be, ‘Get someone into the bed?’ or can it be, ‘Let’s go have a bros’ moment or a friends’ moment.’ I think once [our writers] started to think in those terms, it expanded what those scenes could be like.”

For those of you who are just here to get laid, you’ll be happy to hear that Andromeda romance options might include varying choices in where you can get it on, like the space kitchen, or the space shower, or the space hot tub, or well you get the picture. Walters hinted at these choices by saying that “…if you want to get down to the sex scene stuff, we got aliens, alien environments…we keep coming up with unique places to have some interspecies relationships.”

Finally, those of us that appreciated gay or bisexual relationships in the previous games will still have the option to explore those stories as well. BioWare has no intention to remove these interactions in their games, but they do want them to feel more real, like every other aspect of the Andromeda romance experience. Walters mentions that these sexual orientations should make sense based on the character and that realism is the most important aspect of all of these design choices.

We’re very excited to see exactly what the Andromeda romance system has to offer and we hope that you are too. Do you have any characters that you’re already excited to “get to know” better? Let us know in the comments below, and keep chilling here at DFTG for late breaking news on Mass Effect Andromeda and everything else gaming related.