The Art of the Mass Effect Trilogy/Mass Effect 2

The following contains the text found within The Art of the Mass Effect Trilogy, 2021 edition, relating to Mass Effect 2. Unless otherwise stated, the text was written by Casey Hudson, Derek Watts, Chris Hepler, Karin Weekes and Ryan Cormier.

Commander Shepard

The middle images are concepts for the customization system for Shepard. Shepard's armor system became piece based in Mass Effect 2. The looks emphasized Shepard's silhouette, making the commander appear stronger and able to take more punishment. At the bottom are early attempts at visors and helmets, including a variation on Thane's helmet.

Jacob Taylor

Jacob's armor and clothing helped define the iconic look of all Cerberus clothing. Some concepts were fully armored, while some were cloth or a mixture of cloth and armor. Helmets and breathers would be mandatory on airless or toxic planets. Ultimately, a small respirator was chosen to allow for greater expressivity from the digital actor.

Miranda Lawson

Concepts for Miranda's body and clothing tried to balance sex appeal with a uniform befitting a Cerberus officer.

Garrus Vakarian

Garrus was a popular character among fans, so his design kept pieces of his iconic uniform, such as the eye visor and his signature blue-and-black armor. The variations at the top show differing levels of damage sustained in his fight with the mercenaries of Omega.

Early versions of the model for Garrus's head included a medical bandage used to cover up the injury. To add more customization to the game, all party members eventually received alternate appearances. Garrus's had undamaged armor and a slight color variation to make him seem more unique.

Tali'Zorah

Tali'Zorah also proved more popular than expected, and early concepts exploring more extreme variations of her hood and uniform were shelved in favor of one that kept her iconic appearance. Tali's final art was a more polished version of the original Mass Effect character, with a slightly refined hood. This appearance was chosen because it stood out against the many other quarians seen for the first time in Mass Effect 2.

Grunt

Grunt had to be young, but also tough, so we designed the krogan's crests to grow as they age. Grunt's crest is smaller than Wrex's and hasn't fully covered his entire skull. His armor evolved into large shoulder pads and exposed muscular arms, reminiscent of a linebacker.

Early materials for Grunt's armor varied widely. In contrast to the old, battle-scarred Wrex, Grunt looked youthful. His armor would be likened to the "showroom finished" on a brand-new vehicle.

Thane Krios

We had many thumbnail drawings for early Thane concepts. Early in development, concept artists are given as much freedom as possible. For Thane, some drew upon lizards or birds of paradise for inspiration. Later refinements led to a mixture of aquatic and reptilian characteristics. Also included are some concepts for jewerly on his face and neck. Only his necklace made it into the final game.

In early passes at Thane's clothing, we debated whether to give him tight clothing, suitable for an assassin, or a loose-fitting jacket that spoke to the image of a professional. Variations on Thane's face included a mannequin-like, "perfect human" appearance, but this was considered off-putting for a character intended as a potential romantic interest.

Closing in on the final concept, the artists used an open-collared look for a rebellious vibe. Early attempts to remove the jacket because of animation concerns ended up destroying the entire design. Thane's balaclava-style helmets were intended to evoke a ski mask, signifying his criminal background.

Mordin Solus

Mordin's appearance tried to strike a balance between his scientific background and his time spent in the salarian special forces. Early concepts reflected atempts to make him look unique through variations in head horns and the shape of his eyes.

Mordin's appearance hinted at a lab coat and was similar to the outfits chosen for medical characters in the Mass Effect universe. The metal collar was added to break up his silhouette--its purpose was never actually explored in the game's dialogue or lore.

Legion

The goal of Legion's early concepts was to distinguish him from other geth. Eventually, this direction was reined in. In the later stages, it was decided that Legion had ripped off a section of Shepard's armor to cover the battle damage in his chest.

Jack

These images are production paintings showing Jack in her element, giving a feel for what she can do when she breaks out of Purgatory.

Jack is a punk, and early variations focused on that. Her pants, which were part of her prison uniform, were rolled down to reflect Jack's unique sense of style. Her tattoos cover her scars in a deliberate attempt to write her own story, erasing the pain of her past.

An actress's head was scanned to serve as the model for Jack's face. It was decided that Jack needed a shaved head for a genuine punk feel rather than making her a supermodel with ink.

Once it was decided that Jack would be clothed in tattoos, various directions were explored for how to tell her backstory through them. We also sought ways to best show off her tattoos while covering her chest to some degree. Concerns about how exposed she was led to some of the changes.

Samara

Samara was one of the more difficult characters to nail down. Her mystic-warrior concept led to variations including religious headgear or crown-like adornments to imply royalty. It was ultimately decided that it would be acceptable to have some skin showing due to her armor's near-invisible kinetic-barrier technology, which was her primary method of defense.

The images above are good examples of our phase one concept work, in which we try to get as many ideas as possible onto the page. This provides us with the chance to figure out what stands out about a character and what makes her iconic. Here it is pretty obvious which outfit drew our eye. In phase two, we polished the design until we were all in agreement. Various designs were tried for Samara's breather. As with Jacob, we eventually decided on a small breather to allow for more facial expression.

The Illusive Man

It was decided early on that the Illusive Man's face would be based on a "catalog model." Though in his fifties, the Illusive Man doesn't show many signs of age, as improvements in medical technology mean that even a hard-drinking smoker would still look fairly fit. A lot of attention was paid to the implants in his eyes, the intent being to give him a subtly inhuman look.

The challenge with the Illusive Man's suit was to create a futuristic outfit recognizable as a suit, but not confined by any particular decade's fashion. We wanted to give his appearance a timeless feel. His open shirt was included to strike an informal note that said, "Ican do what I please."

Only a few concept pieces were created for the Illusive Man's room. The artist created a piece with him watching a dying star, creating the feeling that he completely controls his environment. The room is empty, giving no hint of where the Illusive Man actually physically lives.

Instead of phones or monitors, the Illusive Man is surrounded by holograms, showing that he is connected to a vast web of information. The fact that he only communicates to Shepard through these holograms again gives a subtly inhuman feel--he sees facsimiles of people rather than the genuine articles.

The Scion

Ideas for the scion varied widely, and the criteria were vague at first. We knew that the scion was made up of multiple husks strung together in a grotesque manner, but the challenge of creating a unique look brought out a wide variety of concept pieces.

Many of these concepts were scrapped because of animation concerns. The final design had one arm turned into a weapon. The sac on the scion's back was added as a weak point for combat.

The Praetorian

The Praetorian was another example of an enemy that didn't come with details on how it looked or how it fought. Some original concepts had it walking, but the Praetorian needed to be inserted into combat levels where he could float above players taking cover.

Eventually, it was decided that he could float, using internal mass-effect generators. The final concept included numerous husk heads inside his chest cavity to add a more horrific and menacing feel.

The Proto-Reaper

The Proto-Reaper, made from harvested human DNA, had several early concepts that resembled a human fetus. Ultimately, this was not deemed threatening enough, and a version closer to the "skeleton" at the bottom was adopted. Many iterations followed, including several adjustments to the final model to make it look more menacing and fulfill more of the combat requirements.

Collectors

The Collectors's look was based on microscopic close-ups of insects, particularly beetles and mosquitoes, for an unsettling, horrifying feel. Early versions included robed walking bipeds for a dark, cult-like appearance. Eventually, it was decided to have the Collector General look more alien, with multiple limbs.

Collector soldiers had to fulfill a number of combat requirements, including taking cover and firing weapons, which led to a design that was more humanoid than the Collector General.

The extra limbs were retained in shrunken vestigial form on the soldier's chest. The chitinous shell covered the outside of the body, while soft flesh could be seen on inner areas, such as the thighs. The glowing eyes became useful to visually show the player when Harbinger assumed direct control of an enemy.

Omega

Omega's initial concept was a dark version of the Citadel, grimy and crime ridden. The shape of Omega was based on that of a mushroom cloud--the hollowed-out asteroid portion forms the cloud and the metallic construction creates the plume.

Some of the ideas for the interior included large shafts connected by bridges for an industrial feel. Early versions that relied too heavily on bridges were then scrapped in order to create more walkable areas.

Afterlife is the ultimate in illicit entertainment, and the club's concept was based on a high-end bar similar to those in Las Vegas. Violence seethes under the surface, but Aria, Omega's queen of crime, keeps it under control.

Omega's interior is shrouded in a perpetual haze from the industrial equipment mining the asteroid. This mutes the colors and makes it clear that the station is an unhealthy place to live. The pipes and neon were added to enforce the feeling of a lawless outpost.

Early concepts of Omega centered on the asteroid, trying to bring its presence into the city. As the asteroid was mined for highly valuable element zero, structures for people to live and work in expanded downward in vertical columns.

Illium

Illium's capital of Nos Astra was conceived as the ideal city of the future, the place where everyone wanted to live. Clean architecture, no garbage, and flying cars reflected a more utopian, 1950s view of the future. Illium's smooth curves and horizontal lines reinforces the Mass Effect style.

The top image is an early concept of the stock exchange area. Later, it was decided to add more neon and holographic displays to give the impression that it was swimming in information and advertising. The lower concepts are of a partially constructed pedestrian bridge connecting the towers in Thane's acquisition mission.

The Citadel

The Citadel Wards conveyed a more cosmopolitan vibe than on Illium, with a safer and more vibrant street life than that on Omega. Inspiration was drawn from cities such as Dubai and Tokyo.

The Citadel's shipyards are understandably massive, since more than thirteen million people live on the station and it is more than forty kilometers long. References were taken from modern-day shipyards and scaled up to reflect the Citadel's immense size.

Tuchanka

The top production painting was made to help the cinematic department understand the place where the player finds Wrex. The krogan, consumed by constant internal warfare, live in ruins, and Wrex sits on a throne surrounded by the rubble of his once-glorious civilization. The armored vehicle was originally a concept design for the vehicle that would become the Mako in the original Mass Effect, but was deemed too large. Here it was repurposed as a krogan vehicle, where it fit in perfectly. Its oversized tires helped it drive over rubble and war-torn terrain.

On the facing page is concept art for the underground bunkers of Tuchanka, where the krogan took cover from nuclear war and the burning heat of the surface.

Horizon

Horizon is a colony with prefabricated buildings. It was imagined that these structures were modular and were stacked in transport ships much like modern-day shipping containers. They would then be assembled in various configurations, depending on the size and needs of the colony. In the lower right is a concept of the Collector ship looming over Horizon.

2175 Aeia

In the concept art for Jacob's loyalty mission on 2175 Aeia, we see an uncharted planet where his father's ship crashed some ten years earlier. We wanted to ship to be overgrown by the jungle, and the mud-and-wood huts show the time and effort that the shipwrecked survivors put in over the years.

Purgatory

The prison ship Purgatory has long arms where staff and utilities are located. The prisoners are housed in the body of the ship, which resembles a fish's skeleton. Purgatory's interior emphasizes the division between the guards and the prisoners--the guards walk in the armored glass hallways, while the prisoners are in courtyards. Jack, one of the galaxy's most powerful biotics, was kept in a cryogenic cell for the ultimate in solitary confinement.

Pragia

Jack's loyalty mission takes place on Pragia in an abandoned Cerberus base. Rain and lightning were intended to give the level a horror-movie feel, conveying the brutality of Jack's childhood.

The Migrant Fleet

This concept shows the scale of the quarian Migrant Fleet, over fifty thousand ships strong. Below is the interior of a liveship that provides food and supplies to the quarian fleet. All available space is crammed with cargo, like a caravan filled with hoarded goods. The heavily recycled air supply gives the atmosphere a hazy glow.

The quarians follow a vegan diet, not out of ethical concern, but because of practicality: the amount of water needed to hydrate an animal is exponentially more than the amount needed to grow plants, and on a starship, all water would need to be conserved carefully.

The liveship's spherical design was intended to make it stand out in the fleet. The sphere maximizes the quarians' yield of crops. Other ships were designed to show that they have been lived in for a long time, with a central ring at the heart of the ship and cargo modules strapped onto them when the quarians ran out of living space. This helped create a refugee feel to the Migrant Fleet, which was ejected from its homeworld centuries ago.

Korlus

Korlus was based on a ship-breaking area in India where defunct oil tankers and other giant cargo ships were disassembled and recycled. Here, the ships are starships, and the environment is understandbly polluted by all the byproducts of destroying spacecraft.

The Lazarus Research Station

Concepts for the Lazarus Research Station, where Shepard was restored to life. The Cerberus station showed a more human approach to architecture, one that is not as clean and refined as asari environments. Cerberus interiors went with a white, black, and orange palette, which tied in with the Cerberus logo.

The Derelict Reaper

The idea of the Cerberus team analyzing the Reaper helped solve a potential level-design problem--how does one walk around a creature that wasn't built for that purpose? The Cerberus team built platforms for ease of navigation, allowing us to create a level that was capable of handling the combat system.

On the facing page are some of the earliest concepts of the derelict Reaper, showing the blast damage of the mass-accelerator round that killed it. These concepts were made to help decide how alien to make the interior of the Reaper. Reapers are alien, but they are also a machine species that would have a sense of logic to their internal layout.

The Normandy SR-2

The story of Mass Effect 2 required that the Normandy be destroyed, which gave us the freedom to redesign the ship. The Normandy SR-2 got a larger body and multiple floors. The new cockpit is more recognizable. We also worked to give the ship's design a sleeker look.

There were many different visions for the Normandy SR-2. We adjusted the tail fins, the engine placement, and the size of the wings relative to the body. We wanted the Normandy to have a muscle car element to its paint job and to feel more aggressive than typical concepts for spaceships or fighter planes. Originally, we proposed that the player could have up to five levels of customization for the Normandy's exterior, but this was cut since it would mean space scenes would not benefit from the spectacular quality made possible by prerendering.

The Normandy's engine room was meant to evoke a super-collider that creates awesome amounts of power for the ship. The sphere holds the element zero for faster-than-light travel.

For ease of navigation, the interior had to be familiar to the players of the first Mass Effect. It felt like a higher-tech version of the SR-1, with more space and rooms for the "dirty dozen," the key party members that join Shepard in Mass Effect 2.

The Collector Ship

The Collector ship went through several iterations and was one of the more difficult levels to create. Originally, the ship's design went so far as to have trees and grass in its interior to disarm human captives and make them feel more docile while they were prepared to be harvested. We then decided that the priority should be that the ship should feel like the Collectors actually constructed it, so we referenced termite hills and insect hives for a more packed-mud, organic feel. The bottom left image is the Proto-Reaper, suspended above the interior level. The concept shows how this creature was still under construction by the Collectors.

The top images are concepts for what the interior of the Collector ship would look like. The central passage features many containement pods for captive humans, and the feeding tubes above them meet up at the body of the Proto-Reaper. The lowest image has concepts for the exterior of the Collector ship. Again, we referenced termite mounds to show that this was, like the Reapers, a synthesis of artificial and organic life.

Mechs

Only a few concepts were done for the YMIR heavy mech; the decisions mostly revolved around how to create an iconic head that could be added to the dog-mech and light-mech bodies to reflect that they all came from the same manufacturer. We raised the shoulders a bit to give it a unique silhouette and a look reminiscent of a gorilla.

All variations on the FENRIS dog mech reflect the design decision to forgo a mouth in favor of a sensor array, a chief feature for a mech that fulfills a sentry role.

The LOKI light mechs were designed to be more destructible, since we knew the player would be quickly dispensing many of them in combat throughout the game. Concepts were based more on the female figure and had more see-through sections to distinguish the mech from other enemies. The helmet concepts varied the level of aggressiveness--ultimately, we watned a neutral, dead look rather having them seem too hostile.

The Oculus and the Tech Drone

The idea behind the oculus was that of an all-seeing eye that can spot and kill the player. The appearance was supposed to be a smooth sphere with Reaper technology stuffed in underneath. The actual design was based on a stereo speaker, and the reference for the eye was, of course, HAL 9000.

The bottom concepts are some of the ideas for the engineer's tech drone, an enemy meant to be more of an annoyance than a challenge. The drone's final desgin was meant to be unobtrusive and reminiscent of the omni-tool that created it.

Weaponry

Mass Effect 2 has a wide variety of conventional guns, broken down into five classes. There are handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, and submachine guns. We decided not to make weapons quite as futuristic in Mass Effect 2 to broaden their appeal, but we still tried to keep the weapons distinct by giving them the iconic Mass Effect dual barrels as often as possible. To create a general sense that the Citadel species were supplied by the same arms companies, everyone except the Collectors and geth had a similar design to their weapons.

Mass Effect 2 introduced heavy weapons, as shown above. Each weapon had a unique use in gameplay, and all were designed to be large and bulky to demonstrate their increased firepower.

Arrival

Arrival was originally set in an underwater base built by humans. Shepard was supposed to land on an ocean planet and take a submarine down to the main level. The idea at this stage was to give it a feel like the movie The Abyss, with separate containers for each section of the base. Eventually, the base was moved to the surface of an asteroid, which became a key plot point.

The reactor core of the Bahak System base functioned both as a combat space and a puzzle while reinforcing the mission's industrial "Wild West" feel.

Kasumi - Stolen Memory

For the Kasumi - Stolen Memory DLC mission, Hock's mansion was imagined as a house in the Hollywood Hills with advanced Mass Effect architecture. Early on, the mission was proposed to be on Illium or another asari planet, but ultimately it took place on a human planet in the Boltzmann System, so the architecture changed accordingly.

Kasumi Goto

Kasumi's concepts ventured into Middle Eastern styles, since Earth societies in the Mass Effect universe are a pastiche of modern cultures. Eventually, her outfit came to echo that of a medieval thief; the hood was adopted to give her a more mysterious, stealthy look.

This was Kasumi's big combat moment. In keeping with her mission's theme, it highlighted her agility, stealth, and hint of cockiness. Kasumi wasn't the type of character to pick up a massive gun and start blasting away.

Zaeed - The Price of Revenge

For DLC releases, BioWare artists generally had more freedom in creating the varied environments like the Zorya factory where Zaeed's main mission took place. There were fewer constraints and deadlines than in the main game's development, which allowed artists freer rein. DLCs often returned to shelved concepts that artists thought were particularly fun, or ideas that didn't fit in the main game.

Zaeed Massani

Early concepts toyed with giving Zaeed an artificial leg as part of his battle injuries, as well as a dog companion. Neither concept was taken past phase one. Potential breathers were inspired by a welding helmet and a hockey mask for intimidation purposes. Head models of Zaeed went through several iterations, adding scarring and a Blue Suns tattoo to show his history with that group.

Early explorations of Zaeed's appearance included various helmets and masks, which are always challenging to design. Headgear tended to obscure the aged look we were going for in his face. We wanted Zaeed's clothing to look like a scavenger had pieced it together out of scrap.

We were interested in giving Zaeed an artificial leg as part of his asymmetrical look. Many game characters have synthetic legs because of the unique visuals they provide, but prosthetics are difficult when applied to movement. If Zaeed limped, the expense of an entirely new animation would have been required for him to walk around an environment.

Lair of the Shadow Broker

The Shadow Broker's ship was found on a planet that rotated very slowly, creating a hot side and a cold side and extreme storms on the narrow strip in between. To withstand the blazing sun, the rear of the ship was developed with a massive shield, which created a very distinctive silhouette.

The original idea for the Shadow Broker's ship was that the player character could climb around on the exterior. We created these artificial canyons along the ship for players to explore. We also wanted the exterior to have a sense of movement, which is why we added details like the antennas.

The Shadow Broker

The challenge in creating the Shadow Broker was to put together two disparate concepts: that of the galaxy's greatest information broker, who is clearly part of the galactic society but also something inhuman and alien that would be a new and frightening challenge for Shepard.

His suit said mob boss, while his exposed face was more alien than anything we had done in the past. The existing digital acting system could not handle the stresses of the new face, so custom work had to be done to animate his multiple eyes and triangular mouth.

The duality of the Shadow Broker's appearance came through in his final look--one BioWare character artist modeled his head, while another modeled his body. Those two elements then came together for the alien mobster look seen in-game.

Overlord

The Overlord DLC delved into a primary Mass Effect theme: the interaction between humanity and artificial intelligence. An experiment to create a human-VI hybrid creates a dangerous VI who goes on a technology-controlling rampage in an attempt to unleash the geth on the planet of Aite. The hoses protruding form David Archer's mouth were designed to emphasize the horror of his forced merging with the VI platform.

Project Firewalker

This level's look was largely dictated by what the gameplay team needed to accommodate the movement of the M-44 Hammerhead hover vehicle. We needed to combine obvious dangers for the Hammerhead to avoid, with safe flat areas where it could land.

Note: this section mixes levels from the Firewalker Pack with those from the Overlord DLC.

To contrast a destroyed geth ship with the usual clean, efficient geth look, we used the lighting to highlight the dark exterior and the holes torn in the ceiling, as seen above. The hoses hanging down were a good way for players to immediately see that this was a derelict ship.

Sketches of the M-44 Hammerhead hovercraft were started by removing the wheels from the Mako ground vehicle. Working with the shark-inspired name, we added the hover pads with shark fins in mind, creating a silhouette that was reminiscent of a sleek swimming predator.

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