Bioware has said Commander Shepard will be a broader, deeper character in Mass Effect 3 due to the firm wanting to express the emotional turmoil going on inside the hero during the war.

Speaking in the latest issue of Bioware Pulse, posted below, Walters not only described the writing process for the game, but explained why the team wanted to take “that next step” with the storytelling in ME3.

“One of the things we wanted to do in Mass Effect 3 was deepen Shepard as a character, so you really get to express what your Shepard is feeling and going through, throughout the war,” said Mac Walters, lead writer on the Mass Effect franchise.

“We wanted to take that next step with the story telling. Yeah, it’s a war, yeah it’s got giant robots we get to shoot in the face, but there is a human side to the story. You are role-playing, and you are role-playing as a human. Why shouldn’t that human have an emotional component throughout the game?”

Walters goes on to say that overall, it’s looking as though the third outing in the Mass Effect 3 universe is going to be bigger than any of the others in the series, and the depth put in by the writers reflects it.

“The emotion, and depth of writing that we have in there, has also gone up another level,” he continued. “When a video game can make you feel something but also be fun and entertaining, then I think we’ve done our jobs.”

Mass Effect 3 is out in March.