Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The Xbox 360 edition was released worldwide in November 2007, while the PC edition was released on May 28, 2008, published by Electronic Arts.[10] The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard, set out to explore a vast universe on his or her ship, the SSV Normandy.
In addition to plans for two sequels to complete a trilogy, BioWare plans to release episodic content via Xbox Live to fill in the story between each game, though these episodes are not essential for understanding the main plot line. The first of these downloadable content packages was released on March 10, 2008.
Synopsis
“Mass Effect”
Project Manager Casey Hudson explained the term “Mass Effect” as follows:
| “ | Inside the game universe, mass effect is a newly discovered (for humans anyway) physics phenomenon that has properties along the lines of other physics forces such as gravity and electromagnetism. It’s what physicists in real life are currently calling “dark energy”, as an explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe — which has only recently been discovered and flies in the face of the previous notion that the universe’s expansion should be slowing down because of gravity. | ” |
Hudson explains that certain beings are able to sense and manipulate mass effect much like some real-life creatures (such as sharks and electric eels) can sense and manipulate electromagnetism. These abilities will be augmentable via implants, and the manipulation of mass effect is referred to as Biotics.
Themes
Mass Effect’s story primarily falls within the space opera genre and explores themes such as space colonization, intolerance, vigilantism, and artificial intelligence. The story, with its man-vs.-machine elements, has drawn comparisons to both Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker novels, Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space novels and Battlestar Galactica. According to Casey Hudson, the project director at BioWare, Aliens, Blade Runner, Star Wars, and Wrath of Khan all served as influences for the game.
Setting
Mass Effect is set in the year 2183 AD. Thirty-five years prior, humanity discovered a cache of technology built by a technologically advanced but long-extinct race called the Protheans. Studying and adapting this technology, humankind has managed to break free of the solar system and has established numerous colonies and encountered various extraterrestrial species within the Milky Way galaxy. Utilizing alien artifacts known as “Mass Relays”, the various space-faring species are able to travel at faster-than-light speeds.
The game takes place primarily in two locations: the frigate SSV Normandy, and the Citadel, a gigantic space station purportedly built by the Protheans and which currently acts as the center of galactic civilization. Throughout the game, however, the player may navigate the Normandy to various planets, moons and other destinations.
Within the game, humanity has formed the “Human Systems Alliance”, one of many independent bodies that make up the collective of “Citadel space”. Citadel space, as a whole, is ruled by a body of government known as the “Council”, which is made up of the three prominent alien races: the asari, salarians, and turians.
Plot
The game begins aboard the experimental SSV Normandy, commanded by Captain Anderson and his executive officer, Commander Shepard, the playable character. The Normandy is being sent to the human colony world of Eden Prime to recover an unearthed Prothean beacon. To assist in recovering the beacon, the Citadel Council, the main government for most of the galaxy, have sent one of their top agents, a turian “Spectre,” named Nihlus. Nihlus is also there to evaluate Shepard to see if he is fit to become the first human Spectre.
Nihlus, Shepard, and a small team discover that the Eden Prime colony is under attack by alien synthetic life-forms known as the geth. Nihlus encounters and is killed by a rogue turian Spectre named Saren Arterius, who is working with the geth. After the battle ends, Shepard discovers the beacon, but it suddenly activates and he receives a vision of biological creatures being slaughtered by machines.
The Normandy and its crew are summoned by Ambassador Udina, Earth’s representative to the galaxy, to the Citadel to report. Shepard is unable to convince the Citadel Council of Saren’s treason until he discovers a recording of a conversation between Saren and one of his allies, an asari Matriarch named Benezia, discussing their victory on Eden Prime. The recording also mentions the return of a force known as the “Reapers,” as well as an artifact called the “Conduit.” Confronted with this evidence, the Council revokes Saren’s status as a Spectre, and makes Shepard the first human Spectre so that he legally can hunt down Saren.
Command of the Normandy is taken from Captain Anderson, and given to Shepard. Shepherd uses the ship to follow up on several leads provided by Anderson and Udina. On Therum in the Artemis Tau Cluster, Shepard finds and rescues Dr. Liara T’soni, Matriarch Benezia’s daughter, who is an expert on the Protheans. On Feros, Shepard fights off an army of geth and destroys an ancient life form known as the Thorian, a sentient plant-like creature, and also learns of Saren’s flagship, Sovereign, which seems to be capable of unique mind-control capabilities. On Noveria, Shepard tracks down Matriarch Benezia while fighting off both geth and alien insects known as rachni. Benezia is eventually defeated, and she reveals that her mind is being controlled by Saren, through his ship, Sovereign. She soon reverts to Saren’s control, and Shepard is forced to kill her.
After completing two of the previous three planets, Shepard and the council learns a salarian spy unit has uncovered a base operated by Saren on the planet Virmire. Once he arrives Shepard learns the base is being used to clone an army of krogan warriors, and with salarians’ assistance he assaults the base to detonate a nuclear device inside its walls. Inside the base Shepard discovers another Prothean beacon, which transfers its knowledge to him. Shepard is then confronted by Sovereign itself, which reveals that it is what the Protheans and geth consider to be a “Reaper.” Sovereign explains that the Reapers permit organic life to develop, allowing species to discover the mass relays (which influence future technology) before exterminating them when they reach a certain level of advancement. After planting the nuclear bomb and attempting to escape the facility, the team is attacked by Saren. He explains that he has aligned himself with the Reapers to save organic life by making it “useful” to the Reapers. Shepard refuses to accept Saren’s plan, and escapes Virmire before the nuclear warhead is detonated.
With the information Shepard’s party has gained, Liara is able to pinpoint the Conduit’s location on a Prothean world known as Ilos. Returning to the Citadel with this information, Shepard finds that the Council does not accept the Reapers as a genuine threat. Ambassador Udina locks Shepard out of the Normandy, but Captain Anderson steps in and allows Shepard to steal the ship back.
On the surface of Ilos, Shepard follows Saren into an ancient bunker deep within the planet, and encounters a Prothean computer system named Vigil, which explains the Reapers’ methodology. The Citadel Station is actually a mass relay facility built by the Reapers intended to summon them from the dark space outside the galaxy. Before the Reapers invaded, the researchers at Ilos were on the verge of understanding the mass relay system, and were able to finish their studies upon reawakening from cold sleep. The Prothean researchers created the Conduit, a miniaturized mass relay that allowed them to travel to the heart of the Citadel, and there sabotaged the primary Citadel mass relay. Sovereign was left behind to re-start the chain of extinction, intending to use the Conduit to transport Saren and his geth army directly into the Citadel, bypassing its security systems.
Shepard pursues Saren through the Conduit. At the same time, Sovereign and a massive geth fleet assault the Citadel itself, breaking through the Council fleets defending the station. Sovereign lands on the central tower of the Citadel and begins activating the relay, while Saren uses the Citadel’s central control systems to close the station around the Reaper to protect it. Shepard fights up the tower to the control center and confronts Saren, either killing him personally or convincing him that he has fallen under Sovereign’s indoctrination, prompting Saren to kill himself. The Human Systems Alliance fleet arrives to reinforce the beleaguered Council fleets, while Shepard reopens the Citadel and exposes Sovereign. At this point, Shepard has a choice between ordering the Alliance fleet to save the Council, who are under attack by the geth, or going directly to Sovereign. Saren’s corpse suddenly reanimates under Sovereign’s direct control, through the use of cybernetic implants, and begins attacking Shepard while the Alliance attacks Sovereign itself. Sovereign is eventually destroyed, and the reanimated Saren corpse disintegrates.
The precise ending of the game depends on several factors, including whether or not Shepard opts to save the Council during the final battle, and whether Shepard has a higher Paragon or Renegade meter. If Shepard saves the Council, they are inspired by Shepard’s actions and bravery, and grant humanity a seat on the Council. If the Council is destroyed, the Systems Alliance assumes control, and humanity steps forward to lead the galaxy into the future. Shepard is also allowed to choose between Ambassador Udina or Captain Anderson as the new galactic leader or Council member in the aftermath, but regardless of the choice, Shepard realizes that the Reapers are still a threat, and that they must be stopped.
Characters
The player assumes the role of Commander Shepard, a veteran soldier who can be customized by the player. The character’s appearance also varies based on the weaponry and armor the player uses. In addition to customizing Shepard’s appearance, players can also choose a back story for the character, which influences dialogue throughout the game, as well as which side missions will be available to the character.
In addition to Commander Shepard, the player can have two additional characters following along and contributing to battles and dialogue. These characters are not created by the player and are only partially under the player’s control. There are six characters met in the game who will join the fight; each has a detailed back-story and their own reasons for wanting to help. Two of the characters are human and the other four are aliens.
Cast
The cast of Mass Effect includes Mark Meer as the male Commander Shepard, Jennifer Hale as the female Commander Shepard, Keith David as Captain David Anderson, Lance Henriksen as Admiral Hackett, Marina Sirtis as Matriarch Benezia, and Seth Green as Jeff “Joker” Moreau.
Alien species
While playing Mass Effect, the player will encounter a number of sentient alien species. While human characters are present, much of the time will be taken up interacting with the other species in the game. Aliens include the reptilian krogan, the frog-like salarians, the raptor-like turians and the asari, a race of aliens who physically resemble human female
Gameplay
Player creation and character classes
Although most of the game’s screen shots and concept art show the same “default” male Commander Shepard, it is possible for the player to fully customize his or her character’s appearance, gender, abilities, and even military background.
The game includes six character classes. Each class contains several talents; as each talent is leveled, the character either gains stats (extra health, stamina, etc), unlocks new abilities (leveling the Shotgun talent unlocks the Carnage ability, which allows the character to fire a concentrated explosive blast from the Shotgun), or unlocks other talents. Each class also possesses a unique talent with the same name as its respective class; the characters may also have talents tied to their background. Characters who have reached level 20 will unlock a “Rogue VI” side-mission on Luna (Earth’s Moon) in the Sol system, in which upon completion, allows the player to choose one new specialist class. This unlocks one new “bar” of talents which can be earned. The specialist classes the character is offered depend on the base class.
When characters are first created, six classes are available: Soldier, Engineer, Adept, Infiltrator, Sentinel, and Vanguard. Soldiers are the most skilled with weaponry, Engineers make use of the omni-tool and tech-abilities and the Adept are the best at using the biotics. The other three classes are combinations of the first three. Infiltrators are a combination of Soldiers and Engineers, the Sentinel is a combination between the Engineer and the Adept, and the Vanguard are a combination of the Soldier and the Adept.
Players also have some control over their character’s back story. They are able to choose either to have been a “spacer” (born and bred in space), a “colonist” (born on one of Earth’s extrasolar colonies), or an “Earthborn.” They also choose whether they have been the sole survivor of a terrible battle, a war hero, or a ruthless soldier. These backgrounds have only a small effect in the game, although many characters reference the player’s chosen background when talking to Commander Shepard, and these can also affect whether some side-quests become available or not. Except in a few situations, the player’s background does not directly affect the player’s dialogue choices.
Dialogue
Previous BioWare titles such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire employed a conversation system where the player chose from several responses after non-player characters (NPCs) had finished speaking. Mass Effect introduces a new system in which responses to NPCs are displayed as the general tone of the message, rather than a word-for-word transcription of the message.
The 1UP.com preview states that “the dialog system is a refined, more dynamic version of what you’ve seen in previous BioWare games. You’ll no longer read the lines and select which one you want to say; now you use a dialog wheel to choose the approach you want to take (bully, bribe, or be nice, for example), and your character takes it from there.”
A radial command menu, divided into six equal sections like a pie chart, is shown at the bottom of the screen when a conversation is initiated. Each section is assigned a brief description of the response’s intent, usually a short phrase such as “What’s going on?”. The response is selected by moving the analog stick in the direction of the desired response on the circle and pressing a button. The command menu is organized such that each section is assigned a particular inclination (being nice, aggressive, etc.), so that after players have become comfortable with the system they no longer have to read the menu, and are able to respond appropriately, immediately, if desired. BioWare hopes that the innovative system allows the game to be more cinematic and frees players from reading large amounts of dialogue, as would be required with the commonly used system of simply having the player choose from complete, sometimes long, written
Combat
Combat in Mass Effect takes place in real time, though much like a previous BioWare game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the player can pause at any time to give orders to other squad members. The player and his allies use firearms (modifiable with various upgrades throughout the game), Tech abilities (to interfere with enemy equipment and abilities), and Biotics (similar to magical attacks or Force powers in other games) to fight their enemies. Players directly control all of their own character’s actions as well as utilizing their squadmates personal attacks, but cannot take direct command of their squad mates. They can, however, issue commands using the directional pad, allowing the player to tell other characters to get behind cover, regroup, attack a specific target, or to scout ahead. The player can also use the talent wheel interface to control which of their abilities or special powers squad mates use.
The abilities and special powers that characters have at their disposal are determined by the skill sets assigned to them at the beginning of the game and how further earned experience points have been allotted since then. Some special abilities include a telekinetic lift that can be used to pick up objects and enemies, and a tech ability that reduces the shields of enemies. Dialog and commercial abilities such as charm and intimidate are dependent on points, storyline progression, and the amount of paragon or renegade points the characters attain.
Tech abilities
Tech abilities are support powers used against enemy weapons and technology, as well as biotics. They are activated through the OmniTool, which three of the main classes can use: Engineers, Infiltrators, and Sentinels. These abilities include destroying enemy shields, sabotaging enemy weaponry, and hacking robotic enemies to fire on their own squad. Tech abilities also have passive uses, such as the Electronics talent, which allows the party to open locked crates or salvage components from wrecks.
Included with Tech abilities are the First Aid and Medicine Talents, which boost squad-wide healing when the First Aid ability is used.
Biotics
Biotics are powers accessed by the characters using implants that enhance natural abilities to manipulate dark energy. These abilities include hurling enemies around with the mind, raising shields that are resistant to enemy fire but still allow the player to fire through them, and creating small singularities that cause destructible parts of the environment to fly at enemies. Three of the main character classes are able to use these powers: Adepts, Vanguards and Sentinels
Weapons and equipment
Mass Effect features four classes of conventional weapons and a variety of weapon and armor upgrades. The player can pause the game at any time and change the equipment used by the members of the party. This is a major strategic aspect of the gameplay, as choosing the correct equipment can mean the difference between a quick victory and defeat. Equipped items are visible on the characters; the armors have different appearances and all weapons fold up into compact versions that are stored on the character’s back. Weapons can be retrieved by using a weapon wheel similar to the talent wheel.
Ammunition is unlimited; instead of needing to reload, a weapon will build up heat until it overheats, and cannot fire until it has sufficiently cooled down. In-game, the reasoning for this is that weapons are loaded with “blocks” of ammunition material, and each round fired is sheared off from this central supply of ammunition. The rounds themselves are described as being the size of a “grain of sand” and are launched through “mass accelerator” technology at extremely high speeds. Firing a weapon continuously or using a weapon that one is untrained with will result in decreased accuracy, represented by an expanding targeting reticule. The more Talent points that are spent on a weapon type, the greater the weapon type’s accuracy and damage.
The characters wear dual layer hardsuits which serve as combat and EVA suits. These suits provide a seemingly limitless supply of oxygen. The method for creating this is unknown. They offer protection against incredible temperatures, and can take multiple mass accelerator rounds before failing. The suits also come equipped with Kinetic Barriers, which act as shields that stop most weapons fire. There are three classifications of hardsuits: light, medium, and heavy armor.
Morality
The side story and the number of character interaction choices in Mass Effect are affected by the player’s chosen morality. Unlike in BioWare’s previous titles, emphasis on becoming a pure “good” or pure “evil” character is lessened. Some characters may not like the player or leave the player’s squad if the player’s moral direction differs from their squad mates. The overall story is also affected by the player’s personal choices. Project Director Casey Hudson of BioWare has said “[the player's] style of play throughout the game will result in diverging endings that determine the fate of humanity itself”, affecting not only the first installment, but also the planned sequels. Morality is mostly determined by the player’s choices during conversations.
Hudson has further stated that instead of the “good” and “evil” approach that past BioWare games have taken, Mass Effect morality is based on giving points as a “Paragon” for choosing more polite and professional military actions, or as a “Renegade” for taking a more ruthless and take-no-prisoners approach. “Paragon” and “Renegade” points are scored on two separate scales (i.e. taking a “Paragon” option does not negate a past “Renegade” option), as opposed to other BioWare titles such as Knights of the Old Republic in which morality points were scored on a single scale so that making a “Light Side” choice negated the morality change characters underwent for making a “Dark Side” choice. NPCs react differently to a character depending on their past morality choices.
Travel
The SSV Normandy, the player character’s ship, and a technological marvel in the setting of the game, serves as the primary mode of transportation.
Since the game spans the galaxy, many trips have to be made from planet to planet. Players choose destinations by selecting them through a galactic map of the Milky Way. The galaxy is divided into numerous levels of organization, shrinking in scale from star clusters, to star systems, and finally down to planets.
Travel through the Mass Effect universe is aided through the use of Mass Relays, which are technological artifacts that are capable of transporting vessels nearly instantaneously between star clusters and systems. There are two types of Mass Relays, primary and secondary. Primary relays are “linked” with a twin, and so have a single line of travel, but can span as many as a hundred thousand light years — according to the game’s “Codex”. Secondary relays are omnidirectional and can send ships to any relay within its limited range of about a hundred light years.
Once the player decides on a system to visit, several options are available. Some planets are simply there to complete the system. Others can only be surveyed for valuable materials. Some astral bodies such as asteroids, moons, and small space freighters are also available for survey. Finally, some planets can be landed on and explored. The player can move about on foot or using an all-terrain armored personnel carrier called the M35 Mako. Some segments of the game feature combat requiring the use of this vehicle. Most main story segments (and many side missions) are geared toward on-foot shooter action.
Although the game follows a main story, Mass Effect includes a large number of side missions and free-roam “unexplored planets” that can be reached by selecting them through the galactic map.
Enhanced Achievements
As with all Xbox 360 titles, Mass Effect contains Achievements that are unlocked when certain conditions are met. However, unlike other Xbox 360 games, in addition to adding to a player’s Gamerscore, certain Mass Effect Achievements will grant permanent in-game bonuses for the player, once unlocked. Some open extra options during new-character creation, allowing a player to pick one bonus skill (depending on which possessing skill-based achievements had been unlocked prior to that point) that their new character’s class would not normally have. For example, killing 150 enemies in one playthrough with the shotgun unlocks the Shotgun Expert achievement, and allows any future characters created by the player to specialize in the shotgun, even if the chosen class does not. Other achievements grant permanent increases to stats such as health or shields.
Controversies
Sex scene coverage on the internet
Controversy over the sexual content of Mass Effect occurred when evangelical blogger Kevin McCullough wrote an article titled, “The ‘Sex-Box’ Race for President”. McCullough employed strong, inaccurate statements such as “Mass Effect can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes,” and “with it’s ‘over the net’ capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away.” The game itself does not feature rape, as each romantic sub-plot involves consent on the part of the player and the NPC.
McCullough’s article was met with an outburst from the gaming community. McCullough issued an apology by saying, “I DO apologize to the gaming universe!” He then goes on to say, “I still do concur with my original position that the objectionable content in Mass Effect is still offensive”. McCullough’s handling of the situation was parodied by popular gaming webcomic Penny Arcade. The resulting controversy eventually resulted in his article being taken down as a form of Self-censorship by Townhall.com.
Fox News on the sex scene
Mass Effect allows players to start romantic relationships with a handful of party members. Each romantic subplot has a short cut-scene that glimpses sex between the characters. A New York Times article on the controversy compared the contents to U.S. evening network television.
On January 21, 2008, a Fox News segment “The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” discussed Mass Effect with the heading ‘”Sexbox?” New video game shows full digital nudity and sex.” The report itself was highly sensationalized. MacCallum stated that the game “leaves nothing to the imagination,” features “the ability for players to engage in full graphic sex” where the player gets to decide what happens, cited critics as saying that the Mature-rated game is marketed to children and teenagers, and read a rebuttal from publisher Microsoft stating that the company abides by rating systems and provides monitoring tools for parents. Psychology specialist and author Cooper Lawrence and video game journalist Geoff Keighley were interviewed. The former described sexual content in video games as teaching their active users, adolescent boys, to consider women as objects of desire valued solely for their sexuality. She added that the game’s player character is a man who decides how many women he wants to be with. Keighley focused on challenging the accuracy of previous statements, saying it is a choice to play the protagonist as a male or a female. He also described Mass Effect as having an optional, brief sexual situation as the culmination of a romantic relationship in a 30+ hour game. Adding to Lawrence’s inaccuracies is the fact that the main character is not allowed to be with more than one individual, sexually and romantically. MacCallum and Lawrence admitted that they had not played the game.
Electronic Arts, the parent company of BioWare, requested a correction of “serious errors” from Fox News in an open letter. Fox News replied by stating that EA had been offered a chance to appear on the channel.
On the 25th, Lawrence, who had since watched someone play the game for about two-and-a-half hours, retracted her earlier statements in an interview. She added that she had been told the game was similar to pornography, and noted that she “has seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit.” In the interim, largely as a reaction from an offended gaming community, her latest book attracted a number of customer reviews on Amazon.com which rated it one star out of five. In an editorial, G4’s Adam Sessler referred to the interview as a “litany of falsehoods” and parodied Lawrence’s statements.
Singapore M18 rating
Mass Effect was banned in Singapore for a short time before it was lifted with an M18 rating. Censors in the country said that a scene with an alien and human female caressing was the main reason why the game was not allowed to be sold in Singaporean video game stores.
Street date violations
On Friday, November 9, 2007, 11 days before the official release date of the game, news on the internet surfaced that the game was available for sale at several Kmart stores in the United States. This was later confirmed by BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly on the official Mass Effect forum. The street date was also broken in Australia on 2007-11-16 by EB Games who received their copies of the game early and took it as a sign to begin distributing. This was shortly followed by many game retailers including JB Hi-Fi, Gametraders, Zellers and GAME.
Digital rights management
On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Bioware confirmed that it will be using the latest version of digital rights management software SecuROM with the PC release of Mass Effect, a decision that has attracted criticism. This means that users will be required to allow SecuROM access to their systems, with online activation required after installation in addition to a “check-in”, where the product must re-validate itself every 10 days or it will cease to operate until the next successful check-in. A similar but less stingent situation which did not require continual online validation resulted in widespread concern when this method was announced for the PC version of BioShock. On Friday, May 9 of the same year, Bioware decided to remove the 10 day periodic re-authentication, saying that they “listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them.” Players will still need to connect to the server before they launch Mass Effect for the first time or download new game content. Incidentally, another upcoming title to be published by EA, Spore, also dropped the same SecuRom scheme at the same time.
In addition, only three activations will be allowed per CD key. Reinstalling Windows or upgrading certain parts of a computer the game is installed on will use up an additional activation. Bioware employees have repeatedly stated that they do not have any information on what parts can be upgraded without triggering a new activation.
As of May 28th, 2008 there is no automatic mechanism for recovering an activation. After three activations, a user will be required to call EA telephone support and convince a representative that an additional activation is warranted. Bioware employees have stated that additional activations will be provided on a case by case basis. Bioware employees have not elaborated on what circumstances will justify additional activations.
Bioware employees have indicated that when the servers at EA are offline it will be impossible to activate the game. Derick French, an employee of Bioware has stated that if EA takes the servers off line permanently then a patch will be released to remove the online activation requirement. However, neither EA nor Bioware have made any legally binding commitment to releasing such a patch.
Novels
On February 21, 2007, it was announced by BioWare that Del Rey, an imprint of Random House Inc., had acquired Mass Effect: Revelation, the prequel novel to the game. The novel, authored by the lead writer of the game (Drew Karpyshyn), will subsequently be accompanied by another book set in the world of Mass Effect. Revelation was released on May 1, 2007. The second novel, Mass Effect: Ascension, has been announced for release on July 29, 2008.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack, composed by Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques, and David Kates, was published by Sumthing, and features 37 tracks. The soundtrack also contains the ending song performed by Faunts, called M4 P2. According to the liner notes and press release, the music was inspired by classic sci-fi movies such as Blade Runner and Dune. Pieces of the soundtrack are featured in Video Games Live.
Sequels
Mass Effect was originally conceived as a trilogy, but EA has confirmed that Mass Effect “will be a franchise for [EA] for a very long time” indicating that the franchise may extend beyond the planned trilogy. The next title in the series, tentatively titled Mass Effect 2, plans to use much of the same game mechanics as the first title in the series. Not much is known yet about Mass Effect 2 – Casey Hudson, Project Director for BioWare, has said that players should keep their Mass Effect save-files, because decisions made by the player in the first game will continue to have influences on their character in the sequel. Players who have not played the first Mass Effect will start a new character in Mass Effect 2, and will be brought up to speed on the story elements that have taken place thus far in the series
Mass Effect Cheat Codes
Console Cheats
First, enable the console by going to Documents>BioWare>Mass Effect>Config on your computer. Then open BIOInput in Notepad. Find the line [Engine.Console] and under it add the line ConsoleKey=Tilde. Then when playing in game simply press the tilde key (above tab) to open the console, then type in the desired cheat.
| Cheat | Effect |
|---|---|
| giveall | gives you everything exept for armor. |
| givetalentpoints # | replace # with the desired amount of talent points. |
| ghost | walk through walls |
| fly | enable fly mode. very awkward controls. |
| walk | return to normal on foot control |
| setparagon # | replace # with desired amount of paragon points |
| setrenegade # | replace # with desired amount of renegade points |
| givexp # | replace # with desired amount of experience points |
| GiveAllArmor | Gives all Armors |
| GiveAllOmniTools | Gives Omni Tool, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllBioamps | Gives Bio Amps, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllGrenades xs | Give all grenades, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllWeapons xs | Give all weapons, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllArmor xs | Give all armor, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllArmorHuman xs | Give all human armor, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllArmorTurian xs | Give all Turian armor, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllArmorQuarian xs | Give all quarian armor, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllArmorKrogan xs | Give all krogan armor, replace the xs with the name of the manufactuer |
| GiveAllXMods | Give all Weapons and Armor Mods |
| teleport | Move player to location specified by crosshairs |
| InitSalvage 999 | places 999 Medigel in inventory |
| adjustcredits # | replace # with the desired amount of credits |
| givesuperarmor | Give Super Armor |
| givesupergun | Give Super Gun |
