User blog comment:USARMP/Ninjas in Mass Effect/@comment-3325589-20120408223908/@comment-4973403-20120410031641

Considering that Shepard is wearing armor that also has kinetic barriers, I don't believe that a piece of steel would be able to penetrate better than a high velocity bullet. I did not see any effects on any of the swords which would put them into the Warhammer 40K realm (powerswords, chainswords) or Battletech realm (vibro-blade). You are right that some bullets will do less damage than a sword impact, such as a high velocity round which could go clean through (pending shockwave damage), and I'm skeptical that firearms in the MA universe utilize 5.56 NATO style rounds which are designed to tumble and wound instead of outright kill opponents since there is a wide variety of potential threats in the galaxy ranging from armored mercs to Krogan to Geth. I did like that combat took place at closer ranged than the previous MA games, as it made combat more intense, but while the pen may be mightier than the sword, don't bring a knife to a gunfight.