Commander Shepard is the player character in the Mass Effect video game series by BioWare (Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3).
A veteran soldier of the Systems Alliance Navy, an N7 graduate of the Interplanetary Combatives Training (ICT) military program, and the first human Citadel Council Spectre, Shepard works to stop the Reapers, a sentient machine race dedicated to wiping out all advanced organic life. Shepard is neither a hero, nor a villain;Paragon or Renegade morality system game mechanics depending upon players' choices and actions, Shepard is the abstaining factor that acts as both on occasion and will take whatever action is deemed necessary when presented with impossible scenarios.
Shepard's gender, class, first name and facial appearance are chosen and customized by the player. The default male Shepard's face and body were modelled after Dutch model Mark Vanderloo, while Mark Meer provided the voice for the male Shepard. Jennifer Hale voiced the female Shepard. Since the player can choose the gender of Shepard, much of the dialogue revolving around the character is gender-neutral with only a few exceptions. In some other Mass Effect media, Shepard is pre-determined as a male character and referred to as such.
The character is inspired by and named after American astronaut Alan Shepard. Shepard's armor developed over the series and was originally intended to be red-and-white. Most promotional material for the series focused on the male Shepard, due to the studio's desire for a single identifiable hero, though both versions of the character were given equal priority during development. Various merchandise has been made, including several figurines. Shepard has made cameo appearances in other Electronic Arts games and is referenced in Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Concept and creation BioWare wanted players to feel special and empowered right from the start. Unlike other role-playing game protagonists, they felt Shepard should not be an entirely blank character for the player to create, in order to create a more "intense" experience; with the first Mass Effect being more cinematic than other BioWare video games, they felt they needed an "extra bit" with a sense of a specific flavor that can be caused by a memorable character, such as Star Treks Captain Kirk or 24s Jack Bauer. Project director Casey Hudson also cited 24 as an influence on the kinds of morally ambiguous decisions presented to the player throughout the game's narrative.
The team decided that the player-created protagonist needed at least a fixed surname so that other characters could address the protagonist naturally in voiced dialogue. They wanted a name that was both "all-American" and common, which led them to start looking at the original seven astronauts. Alan Shepard was chosen due to fitting with the idea of "their" Shepard, being tough and respected, and fitting in with the character being the first human Spectre – Alan Shepard being the first American in space.
Shepard's physical performance was developed separately from the character's facial appearance. Lead cinematics animator Shane Welbourn recalled that an actor initially hired for motion capture had recently injured his back, producing movements that did not suit the military character the team wanted. Welbourn subsequently performed most of Shepard's motion-captured movements himself.
Appearance and design Early armor designs for Shepard in the first Mass Effect were comparatively close-fitting or skintight; following fan feedback, Shepard's armor became progressively bulkier over the course of the series to give off an imposing presence. The armor became piece-based in Mass Effect 2 to stress the character's silhouette, as well as making them look "stronger and able to take more punishment". Despite this, the colors, as well as other elements of the armor and the commander's appearance, are customisable in Mass Effect 2.
The color of Shepard's default armor was originally red-and-white, but this was changed to charcoal grey, with a red-and-white stripe and the N7 logo, as Shepard looked too much like a medic. Art director Derek Watts recalled that the N7 mark originated from a logo he had seen on ski equipment. After it was added to an early design, the team repeatedly retained it until the insignia and stripe became identifying elements of Shepard's appearance. The red stripe in the N7 logo is meant to symbolise the blood the character must sacrifice to save the galaxy.
For the character customization at the start of the game, they focused on "quality and realism". In order to test out the customisation system, the team made various celebrity look-alikes to ensure it offered a wide enough variety. The team considered several approaches considered for the default male Shepard's face. Watts recalled that one experimental version used George Clooney's face as a reference; although Clooney was not intended to become the final model, the short hair and square jaw helped establish the direction of the character. Watts later encountered photographs of Mark Vanderloo and tested his likeness on the existing Shepard model. He felt Vanderloo provided a less exaggerated action-hero appearance and a look that was difficult to associate with any single contemporary ethnicity, which suited the series' future setting. Vanderloo's likeness was subsequently used for the default male Shepard.
During the development of the first game, the female Shepard was given equal importance as the male counterpart; unique lines were written for her as well as a unique romance option. An early animation test for the first game used a female Shepard model. Hudson described the female Shepard as a strong character in her own right rather than a caricature of a female role-playing protagonist, emphasizing that she could be sensitive while remaining confident and assertive. Although both versions of Shepard were playable from the first game, the male default Shepard initially dominated the series' promotional material. According to marketing director David Silverman, BioWare decided during the development of Mass Effect 3 to give the female Shepard greater visibility, including her own trailer and a place on the collector's edition packaging.
While the default female face only changed slightly between the first and second game, the female Shepard's default appearance for Mass Effect 3 was substantially redesigned. BioWare placed six proposed design online and invited fans to vote for their preferred version through Facebook. The six candidates had been selected from a larger collection of concepts produced during development. The design depicting a blonde Shepard won the initial vote. BioWare then held a second vote to select the design's hair colour. A red-haired version won and became the default female Shepard used in Mass Effect 3.
For Mass Effect Legendary Edition, BioWare unified Shepard's customization options across the trilogy and expanded the character creator with additional skin tones and hairstyles. The same character code could also be used across all three games, allowing a customized Shepard to retain a consistent appearance throughout the trilogy. The default female Shepard introduced for Mass Effect 3 was made the default female appearance in all three games.
Voice
The male and female versions of Shepard were voiced by Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale respectively. Both of them had worked with BioWare many times previously.
Meer had first worked with BioWare during the creation of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and went on to voice other bit parts in their games. When he was first called in to work on Mass Effect, he expected to voice more bit parts, and was "pleasantly surprised" to get the role of Shepard. Caroline Livingstone gave voice direction during recording, and lead writer Mac Walters would occasionally sit in during recording sessions, allowing lines to be changed quickly.
Meer was initially directed to play Shepard as a restrained, professional military officer. He avoided making either the Paragon or Renegade responses sound so extreme that switching between them would make the character seem inconsistent. As the trilogy progressed and Shepard was placed under greater pressure, Meer was given more scope to vary the character's emotional delivery. Caroline Livingstone directed the recording sessions, with lead writer Mac Walters sometimes present so that dialogue could be revised during recording.
Hale approached Shepard primarily through the script rather than modelling the character on another science-fiction protagonist. Hale has said she is very invested in helping to "create" the stories of video games, though she herself is not a gamer. Although Hale does object to certain lines if they seem out-of-character in other works, she prefers not to mess with the words for Shepard and BioWare. That BioWare did not change the words based on gender considerations was one of Hale's favorite aspects of the series.
During recording for Mass Effect 3, Hale worked with Livingstone and Walters using a system that supplied the current line together with preceding dialogue and contextual directions. Multiple readings of the same line could be recorded with different emotional emphases, allowing an appropriate take to be selected later. Hale said Shepard's military background informed the character's controlled delivery. The branching dialogue also required her to avoid carrying an emotional state from one possible conversational path into lines that could be reached through another.
Appearances
Shepard serves as the player character of the main Mass Effect game trilogy. The commander is a graduate of the Systems Alliance's – the "galactic face of humanity" – military N7 program, the highest grade of their "Interplanetary Combatives Training" that commands a great deal of respect. Their service before joining the military and the military event that allowed them to rise to fame are both chosen by the player before the game starts, out of three options each. Also customizable is Shepard's gender, character class and physical appearance. The player is given paraphrased dialogue options via a radial command menu called the "dialogue wheel", which Shepard will expand on when clicked. Different choices on the dialogue wheel can grant either Paragon or Renegade points, which will over time affect their physical appearance in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3: a higher Renegade score will cause Shepard's scars to worsen and their eyes to start glowing red, while a higher Paragon score will cause Shepard's scars to gradually heal and fade away.
Outside of the main trilogy, Shepard has been briefly mentioned in the novels Mass Effect: Ascension, Retribution, and Deception, and has also made a brief appearance in the third issue of the comic Homeworlds, with only the N7 logo on their armour being shown in-shot. Redemption, taking place two years before the second game's main events, concerns how Shepard's body was retrieved by Liara T'Soni and then given to Cerberus after the character's death in Mass Effect 2s prologue. The character, however, will not be making any further appearances in any Mass Effect games now that the main trilogy is over, and BioWare have said that they do not wish the next Mass Effect protagonist to just be another soldier or "Shepard 2".
Mass Effect