You can lose, but if you look closely, you’ll see that Commander Shepard’s standard model for women in Mass Effect Legendary The edition is a little different. Easier on the eyes – at least, according to BioWare.
During an interactive presentation detailing the changes to the remastered version of the science fiction trilogy, environment and character director Kevin Meek noted that Shepard’s iconic female version wasn’t presented until Mass Effect 3. This, he said, came with an inherent disconnect: you could have played the first two games looking one way and then initialize the final game just to look totally different. The remastered version will not have this problem, as the standard FemShep that we all know and love will be available from the start.
And it was touched up.
“I think she was a great example of ME3 character that, you know, still had some room for improvement, ”said Meek. The team decided to make “another pass” on it, where they slightly modified “some larger shapes of their face, or adding some medium and fine details like wrinkles and pores and specular separation.”
The average player may not see the difference, he admits, but the hope was that the newer model “better captured the light”.
“She competes more with the iconic male pastor in terms of overall quality now,” he continued.
Polygon asked if the male version of Shepard will also receive a facial, but has yet to receive an answer. Cynically, this can be seen as an implied admission that BioWare did not work enough on the original FemShep model. At the very least, it is a spiritual continuation of the strange beauty contest that brought FemShep into existence in the first place. In 2011, BioWare held a voting contest where fans could choose how they wanted FemShep to look, both as the standard model of the game, but also in marketing materials like trailers. There was also a second follow-up vote by BioWare to determine FemShep’s hair color.
At the time, the initial contest was a kind of triumph for fans who urged BioWare to give FemShep its due, but the way it really unfolded seemed strange. When the votes were counted and blonde Shepard won, you couldn’t shake the feeling that people just wanted the conventionally attractive woman most like a Barbie available. For BioWare to return years later and continue to modify it, while Male Shepard apparently remains the same, it is a bit unpleasant.
Or maybe there is a more optimistic way of looking at it. We can’t change what happened in 2011, but in 2021, there is no vote, no massive fan campaign to make BioWare match consider highlighting FemShep.
Quietly, FemShep was just in the big reveal trailer that announced the release date for Mass Effect Remastered. It’s only a few seconds near the end and it still looks monumental. Don’t take it from me. Just look at how FemShep’s voice actress, the indelible Jennifer Hale, cried after seeing her own character star the show from the beginning.