When you begin Mass Effect 2 , you have the opportunity to import your Shepard into the game or start an entirely new one.
If you import a save file, several of the choices you made in the original game, such as whether or not you saved the Council, carry over into this next mission.
However, after playing through the prologue, you have the chance to completely redesign Shepard’s physical make-up and class, thanks to Cerberus science.
If this is your first time playing a Mass Effect adventure or you decide not to import your previous Shepard, you will create an entirely new Shepard from scratch, including not just the commander’s gender and appearance, but also the hero’s backstory.
Shepard’s Basics
There are several steps to creating a character, starting with the absolute basics, such as name and physical appearance.
Start-up
When starting a new game, the first thing you must do is set up the general parameters of the mission.
Once these have been filled in, you can then begin the prologue and eventually end up in the Cerberus medical facility, where you make the rest of your character choices.
Here are the parameters you must set when starting a new game:
Combat Difficulty: There are five difficulty settings. Once one is selected, you cannot change the difficulty without starting a new game. These are the difficulty settings:
- Casual: Increases the toughness and power of Shepard and the squad members. Enemies are slower to react to the player and use powers less often. This option is great for players who care more about story than combat.
- Normal: This is the baseline Mass Effect experience. This difficulty is intended for players who are familiar with shooters and RPGs.
- Veteran: Enemies are tougher, react more quickly, use powers more frequently, and use upgraded weapons at this difficulty level.
- Hardcore: This difficulty is intended for players who have already beaten Mass Effect 2 and want a bigger challenge. Enemies are extremely tough, use upgraded weapons, and are aggressive with their powers. All of them also have Shields or Armor, making them much tougher.
- Insanity: This level is intended for players who have beaten the game on hardcore and want the ultimate challenge. Enemies are exceedingly aggressive and use their powers mercilessly. All of them also have Shields or Armor, making them much tougher.
Auto Level Up: Turning this off lets you manually assign points every time Shepard or a squad member gains a level.
Subtitles: You can turn subtitles on or off during dialog scenes. This can be changed later in options from the mission computer.
Squad Power Usage: Enabling this feature allows your squad members to make their own calls in combat in regards to using powers. Turning it off means your squad members will also use powers defensively. Otherwise, you must deploy powers for them.
Autosave: Choose whether or not the game autosaves for you on a regular basis.
Appearance
After selecting Shepard’s name, you enter the facial customization tool. From here, you can completely design (or redesign in the case of an imported Shepard) the commander’s face.
If you are happy with the default options, then keep moving. If you want to make changes to Shepard’s face, then comb through the different categories of facial features.
There are multiple options within each category. For the nose, you can select different shapes, adjust bridge width, change height, etc. Here are the available categories:
- Facial Structure: Select a baseline face to work with.
- Head: Change the general shape of the commander’s head.
- Eyes: Adjust the eye color, shape, and placement.
- Jaw: Adjust the commander’s jaw line and chin.
- Mouth: Select the shape of Shepard’s mouth, lip size, and mouth depth.
- Nose: Adjust the nose shape, height, and depth.
- Hair: Select from different hairstyles and colors.
- Makeup (female only): Adjust lip color and add eye shadow or blush.
Personal Background and Profile
After selecting Shepard’s appearance, you can choose the commander’s class (soldier, vanguard, etc.).
However, before we explain the strengths and benefits of all of the different classes, let’s just finish up the basics of creating a new character.
You must give Shepard a personal background that broadly defines the commander’s personality. There are three choices:
Spacer: Both of your parents were in the Alliance military. Your childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from post to post, never staying in one location for more than a few years.
Following in your parents’ footsteps, you enlisted at the age of 18.
Colonist: You were born and raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. When you were 16, slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering your family and friends.
You were saved by a passing Alliance patrol, and you enlisted with the military a few years later.
Earthborn: You were an orphan raised on the streets of one of the great cities covering Earth.
You escaped a life of petty crime and underworld gangs by enlisting with the Alliance military when you turned 18.
After selecting the commander’s personal backstory, you then select a psychological profile. There are three options:
Sole Survivor: During your military service, a mission went horribly wrong.
Trapped in a life-threatening situation, you had to overcome physical torments and psychological stresses that would have broken most people.
Everyone around you fell, and you alone survived to tell the tale.
War Hero: Early in your military career, you found yourself facing an overwhelming enemy force. You risked your own life to save your fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds.
Your bravery and heroism earned you medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet.
Ruthless: Throughout your military career, you held fast to one basic rule: Get the job done. You’ve been called cold, calculating, and brutal.
Your reputation for ruthless efficiency makes people wary of you. But when failure is not an option, you are the one to call.
The background choices you make are more than just window dressing. These choices affect the overall morality of your hero.
The morality system in Mass Effect 2 is explained a little later in this chapter, but here are the morality benefits of each choice:
- Paragon Bonus: Earthborn, War Hero
- Renegade Bonus: Spacer, Ruthless
These bonuses give a slight bump to the number of morality points you earn when making choices during the mission.
For example, a Ruthless Spacer would earn extra Renegade points when being hard on somebody, whereas an Earthborn Sole Survivor would earn just a few less.