Upcoming Mass Effect-like RPG Exodus takes romance seriously, which means you’ll need to get comfortable with the idea that serious romance requires sacrifice, and, sometimes, a pig pen of mess. You’ll be able to date around, but not without consequence.
Exodus narrative director – and Mass Effect’s lead writer – Drew Karpyshyn tells Game Informer that romance was mandatory for the sci-fi drama because “it would feel almost hollow” without it. “Romance is a huge part of the real world,” Karpyshyn adds, and Exodus encourages you to be reasonable when you feel a familiar spark in-game.
So while “you can have multiple romances going at the same time,” Karpyshyn says, “eventually, there might be some issues with that, depending on which companions [you choose].”
It’s like any other situation where one partner wants to discuss non-monogamy and the other wants to throw their copy of The Ethical Slut into a funeral pyre. Basically, “Not everybody is comfortable with that,” Karpyshyn says, “and as the story develops, your romance might go from something like a casual relationship, more of a fling, to something much deeper.”
“In that case,” the writer says, “most of the companions would not want you to have a very deep emotional connection with somebody else as well.” You may choose to ignore your lovers’ wishes if you’d like to live your life in space as an evil bachelorette, but keep in mind that Exodus’ romance is connected to its affinity system. So, the more you risk your tires getting slashed – or whatever the intergalactic equivalent of that is. Your rocketship will get keyed.
Even mission scenarios can risk pissing off your partner. Karpyshyn explains, “You might get into a situation where you think, ‘Well, for this mission, I actually agree with this character, but I’ve been romancing this character. Should I just back them anyway?”
“If you do,” the writer continues, “that’ll obviously get you more affinity with that character.” But “if you decide not to back the character,” he warns, “you might get yourself into a situation where they are not very happy with you. I’m sure anyone who’s been in a relationship has experienced that.”
Karpyshyn explained to GamesRadar+ in February that playing as the main character doesn’t give you magic heartthrob status. Its approach to relationships, as I’m sure you’ve been starting to pick up on, is more realistic than that. The narrative lead said at the time, “There are some games where, literally, you can just romance anyone, because you’re the hero, and you just get it.” Exodus doesn’t waste its time with something so easy.
“We want it to be a little bit more than that. We want these relationships to feel real, which means there’s sometimes conflict, there’s sometimes push and pull. Sometimes you’ve got to earn it” – something you should keep in mind for your time both in space and on Earth.