What Mass Effect 2 Gets Right About Role-Playing
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Too often in RPGs, even in past BioWare games, romance has felt tacked-on, something developers put in because they know fans expect it. It rarely feels like something that would happen naturally through the course of the game. It's just another goal to achieve, another achievement to unlock.
In my Mass Effect 2 playthrough, it's been just the opposite. I kept bugging Jacob about it, trying to be flirtatious, until he finally shot me down. When he did, it made perfect sense for my character. (He's all wrong for her, anyway.) And when I finished the Shadow Broker mission and invited Liara up to my cabin, I could feel this strained connection between them, a sort of intimacy and warmth both felt but couldn't act upon. That's how my Shepard would have behaved.