50 Fun Facts About Mass Effect

Which studio developed the Mass Effect games?

The series began as a 2003 pitch codenamed SFX to the studio's co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk.

The first Mass Effect (2007) launched exclusively on which console?

It reached Windows in 2008 and did not appear on PlayStation 3 until 2012.

Who is the player character throughout the original trilogy?

The gender, class, first name and face are all up to the player.

Which real-life astronaut gave the trilogy's protagonist their surname?

The developers wanted an all-American surname and looked at the Mercury Seven; the first American in space fit the first human Spectre.

Which two actors voice the male and female versions of Shepard?

The default male face was modelled on Dutch model Mark Vanderloo.

Whose face was the default male Shepard modelled after?

The Dutch model's likeness appears on the box art, though the voice belongs to someone else.

What is the name of the elite agent force Shepard becomes the first human member of?

The name is short for Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and agents answer only to the Council.

Who voices Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, pilot of the Normandy?

Keith David voices Captain Anderson alongside him in all three games.

The rogue Spectre hunted in the first game, Saren Arterius, belongs to which species?

He has been indoctrinated by the Reaper Sovereign, which he believes is merely a ship.

The first game opens with a mission to recover a Prothean beacon from which human colony?

The beacon gives Shepard a vision of war and death that drives the whole trilogy.

According to the lore, how often do the Reapers return to purge advanced organic life?

The Protheans were the previous cycle's victims, and their ruins are found on Mars.

In the setting's backstory, humanity discovers that which real moon is actually a mass relay?

The discovery in 2148 follows finding a Prothean outpost on Mars.

What is the six-wheeled vehicle used to explore planets in the first game called?

Its bouncy handling became a running joke; the Nomad replaced it in Andromeda.

On Virmire, Shepard must choose to save only one of which two squadmates?

The survivor carries into the next two games, one of the trilogy's most consequential imported choices.

The morality system in the trilogy uses which two labels?

It evolved from the light and dark side system in BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic.

Which insectoid race is abducting entire human colonies in Mass Effect 2?

They live beyond the Omega-4 Relay, from which no ship has ever returned.

What is the operation that brings Shepard back to life at the start of Mass Effect 2?

Miranda Lawson leads the cell that does the rebuilding.

Which actor voices the Illusive Man?

The comics reveal his real name is Jack Harper, a veteran of the First Contact War with the turians.

The Illusive Man leads which pro-human organisation?

The group first appeared as a minor villain in the first game before funding Shepard in the second.

Miranda Lawson was modelled on and voiced by which actress?

She used her natural Australian accent for the role.

Garrus Vakarian belongs to which species?

He starts as a frustrated C-Sec officer and becomes the vigilante Archangel on Omega by the second game.

In Mass Effect 2, Garrus is found leading a vigilante group on which crime-ridden station?

His team is wiped out through betrayal, and he takes a rocket to the face shortly after Shepard arrives.

Tali's people, the quarians, were driven from their homeworld by which race of their own creation?

The homeworld is Rannoch, and the quarians live aboard the Migrant Fleet in the meantime.

When Tali's face was finally revealed in Mass Effect 3, fans criticised it for being based on what?

The image was replaced with a new one in the Legendary Edition remaster.

How old is Liara T'Soni when she first appears, despite being a young adult by asari standards?

Asari live for around a thousand years, and she is still in the Maiden stage.

Liara is the estranged daughter of which powerful asari matriarch, who serves Saren in the first game?

Shepard confronts her mother on Noveria, where she reveals she has been indoctrinated by Sovereign.

The genophage is an artificial plague that near-sterilised which species?

Urdnot Wrex eventually leads his people and can see it cured in the third game.

Which salarian scientist helped strengthen the genophage and later tries to cure it?

His face was inspired by Clint Eastwood, and he is missing one horn.

In Mass Effect 2, Mordin sings an altered version of a song by which duo?

His take on the Major-General's Song is often ranked among the trilogy's best moments.

The geth squadmate Legion is given its name by whom?

The ship's AI borrows it from the biblical story of the Gerasene demoniac, a nod to the many programs inside one platform.

The finale of Mass Effect 2, in which squadmates can permanently die, is popularly known as what?

Whether anyone survives depends on loyalty missions and ship upgrades completed beforehand.

Mass Effect 2 won Game of the Year at which annual ceremony?

It also took Best Game at the British Academy Games Awards.

In Mass Effect 3, what is the huge weapon built from Prothean schematics to beat the Reapers?

The Catalyst needed to complete it turns out to be the Citadel itself.

The Prothean squadmate added to Mass Effect 3 via DLC is called what?

He came in the From Ashes pack and was bundled by default with the Wii U version.

Which actress voices Aria T'Loak, the asari crime boss who rules Omega?

The Matrix star shares the cast list with Martin Sheen and Lance Henriksen.

The 'Retake Mass Effect' campaign against the third game's ending raised $80,000 for which charity?

BioWare answered the outcry with the free Extended Cut DLC in June 2012.

What did the developers release on June 26, 2012 in response to the ending backlash?

It clarified the three choices without changing them, and added a fourth 'refuse' option.

Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) is set during which century?

The Initiative's sleeper ships take about 600 years to reach the new galaxy.

In Andromeda, the player controls Scott or Sara Ryder, who take on which title?

Their job is finding humanity a new home while fighting the kett and studying the Remnant.

Andromeda was built on which engine, forcing the studio to rebuild its tools from scratch?

The original trilogy used Unreal Engine 3; the switch was blamed for many of the game's troubles.

Which first-game DLC was left out of the 2021 Legendary Edition because its source code was corrupted?

The multiplayer mode of the third game was also dropped from the remaster.

In November 2024, which company officially announced a Mass Effect television series was in development?

A Legendary Pictures film had been announced back in 2010 but never got off the ground.

Which director, who had made Knights of the Old Republic, directed the original Mass Effect?

Preproduction began in early 2004 and the game was planned from the outset as the first chapter of a trilogy.

Which film did BioWare call an especially strong influence on the first game's look and mood?

Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner and Starship Troopers were also influences; Jack Wall of Jade Empire was chosen as main composer.

In which country did EB Games break the first game's street date by selling it on November 16, 2007?

The official North American release followed on November 20; a Windows port by Demiurge Studios arrived in May 2008.

Which country briefly banned the first Mass Effect before allowing it with an M18 rating?

Censors objected to a scene of an alien and a human woman caressing; Fox News also ran a segment claiming the game had 'full graphic sex'.

How many copies did Mass Effect 3 sell in its first 24 hours?

EA shipped 3.5 million units in the first month and NPD counted 1.3 million physical copies in the debut month.

Which composer, known for film scores, was the only newcomer among Mass Effect 3's five musicians?

Sam Hulick had worked on both earlier games, and Dikicyan, Lennertz and Velasco had scored Mass Effect 2 DLC.

What is the name of Mass Effect 3's four-player cooperative horde mode?

Unlike the campaign, it let players pick alien races with unique powers such as the Krogan Charge.

How long was the sleeper-ship journey from the Milky Way to Andromeda in Mass Effect: Andromeda?

The 2017 standalone sequel is set in the 29th century with a new protagonist, Sara or Scott Ryder.