Modders Restoring Unused Mass Effect Gay Romance Scenes – MMORPG.com

Romance is a huge part of any (good) BioWare game. With the recent release of Mass Effect Legendary Editions, new and old players alike are rekindling old flames, or starting new ones. However, one group of modders is digging a bit deeper.

The story begins some months ago when outlet TheGamer published news that Jack, one of the biotic characters introduced in Mass Effect 2, was originally intended to be pansexual. However, changes were made out of fear from how Fox News would react. Moreover, there was apparently an entire “Brokeback Mountain” type cutscene which was fully animated specifically between Male Shepard and Jacob (another Mass Effect 2 characters).

However, both of these never saw the light of day. Fast forward to today and it looks like gay romance options for both Jack and Jacob have been found in the depths of Mass Effect Legendary Edition’s code. But Jack and Jacob aren’t the only characters who have such hidden dialogue. It looks like Kaiden, Ash, Miranda, Thane, and Tali all have their own gay romances.

This is where the modders come in as they’re looking to restore these scenes to Legendary Edition. In speaking with TheGamer, Ryan ‘Audemus’ Ainsworth, who is a mod community manager, noted,

“The first thing is that just because this audio is present doesn’t necessarily mean the character was intended to have a same-sex romance. A lot of the time this audio gets recorded accidentally just due to the sheer volume of lines that Mark Meer/Jennifer Hale [the voices behind Shepard] had to record – it’s very easy for certain things to slip under the radar.”

However, not all scenes and dialogue are created equal. For example, Ashley and Kaiden’s romance from Mass Effect 1 seem to be fully intact. However, Thane, Jack, Miranda, and Tali from Mass Effect 2 only have the first encounter available.

You can check out the full article here. And in case you missed it, check out our review of Mass Effect Legendary Edition.