Mass Effect: Andromeda Will Have Lots More Sex And Nudity Than Previous Games

BioWare and Electronic Arts are shifting the hype machine into full gear, and that means talking a little bit more about some of the more nitty-gritty elements of Mass Effect: Andromeda, including the fact that the game will have a lot more sex and nudity than previous games.

The tweet above was posted up on the Twitter account of BioWare's general manager, Aaryn Flynn. It relates to the fact that all the previous Mass Effect games -- from the original trilogy -- were each rated 'M' for Mature by the ESRB for, among other things, containing "Partial Nudity."

Flynn is correct, if you go and check the ESRB listing page for the previous Mass Effect games. Three of the listings -- two for the original Mass Effect and another for Mass Effect 3 -- list blood, strong language, violence, sexual content and partial nudity in the mix. Each of the entries also describes what the partial nudity refers to, even though technically that infamous scene in the original Mass Effect involving Liara, the Asari, was a bit more like full nudity with convenient censorship rather than just partial nudity like in Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3.

In fact, the Liara sex scene -- if you were playing as female Shepard -- was steamy enough to get the attention of some mainstream news outlets. The idea of lesbian space sex with an alien was enough to blow the minds of some people.

The backlash BioWare and EA received from the steamy romance sequence in the original game actually caused them to drastically tone things down in the sequel. In fact, the ESRB only lists that Mass Effect 2 has sexual content but no partial nudity. Despite Miranda Lawson looking quite vivacious, the romance scene between her and Shepard was rather tame compared to the more intimately shot sequence from the first game involving Liara, which kind of mirrored the sex scenes oftentimes found in flicks made during the 1980s; lots of wide angle shots with slow pans that were inter-cut with some close-ups.

We don't really know exactly how the space sex will be shot in Mass Effect: Andromeda. The games have typically had some pretty good cinematography in the realm of gaming, so it will be fun to see how creative they get in the upcoming title. According to Flynn, he followed up his previous message with a (joke?) comment about the sex in Mass Effect: Andromeda being akin to softcore porn.

I don't know how much of that will be true or whether or not Flynn is just making fun of the rating, but at the moment the ESRB's listing for BioWare's sci-fi space epic isn't available for public perusal... yet.

With Mass Effect: Andromeda having gone gold over the weekend and with the release date set for March 21st, it won't be long before gamers are able to see just how steamy the sex scenes are in the latest title.