This makes me think of something like Alyx 2.0 (upgraded Alyx from Half-Life 2), which is a very good thing.
To me this reads "forced parties" in which I'm stuck with characters who disagree with my actions and constantly hound me about it, ala Neeshka and Bishop. How aggravating. Sigh. Perhaps Bioware can make it less irritating than Obsidian did, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Even if the rest of the game was perfect, I'd give it an 8 just because of this. But I may be overreacting, so I'll wait and see, and give it a chance.
If you listen to the developers' commentary on Half-Life 2: Episode One they did a lot of play-testing around Alyx's character. If she tried to hurry Gordon, then the players very quickly got annoyed. They decided the best attitude for Alyx was to have her trust the player (and by implication, the pace that Gordon set through the game).
As for the "third level" of communication, I'd be surprised if that means more than "mood fidgets" (my terminology), like angry = menacing pacing up and down, etc. I must say I'm a little skeptical about the net benefit that this "third layer" will provide, though I would be more than pleased to be surprised.