Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Upcoming RPG Exodus, the very Mass Effect-y one from veteran Mass Effect developers, is trying to avoid easy romances in favor of more realistic, sometimes challenging relationships. "There are some games where, literally, you can just romance anyone, because you're the hero, and you just get it," Karpyshyn continues, speaking on a trend that's become somewhat more prevalent in today's RPGs. "And 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. Sometimes you do something that sets some characters off, or upsets them, and then maybe closes off some of these paths, or maybe makes it harder to reopen them." More than Mass Effect's spiritual successor, Exodus wants to pull decades of player choice into a single story The thing I wanted more of from Baldur's Gate 3 companions is also something Larian wants to improve on in Divinity Mass Effect veteran's Mass Effect-style sci-fi RPG sure looks a lot like Mass Effect in its new trailer Interestingly, relationships in Exodus aren't just about you and whoever you're looking to hook up with. There's the relationship your companions have with each other, the unfolding events of the wider story, and then the game's highlight feature, time dilation, which opens the door to "some really interesting things that can happen." "They all have their own motivations," Karpyshyn says of the RPG's companions. "So we want to keep it realistic in a way that is challenging and fun for the players, so that you can't just be like 'I'm the focus of the game, I get to romance whoever I want, and they just love me because I'm me.' I don't think that's very entertaining for people. So we really focus on that. And then we've also focused on the emotional impact." Personally speaking, I much prefer this approach as opposed to Baldur's Gate 3 or Dragon Age: The Veilguard's frequently horny, player-sexual characters who are sometimes instantly into you. My mind turns back to Dragon Age's Morrigan, who you can't simply woo by spamming her with conversation starters. You need to be the open-minded type. You need to be at least a little into dark magic. And you need to sometimes join her in bullying Alistair. Who knew that having to actually roleplay as a particular type of character in an RPG is fun? BioWare legend James Ohlen steps aside at studio headed up by Mass Effect veterans after reportedly deciding his work on sci-fi RPG Exodus "was complete"