Character Breakdown: Commander Shepard

Commander Shepard Quick Navigation Links:
Character Breakdown: Commander Shepard
The Commander Shepard Workout
The Skills of Commander Shepard
The Balance of Commander Shepard

Name: Commander Shepard
Games: Mass Effect 1, 2, 3
Skills/Attributes:

• Resourceful
• Determined
• Tenacious
• Combat Trained and Tested
• Excellent fitness level
• Psychic(biotic) abilities
• Hacker/engineer

Summary: Facebook fan Jackie(not my wife, haha), suggested Shepard a few weeks ago, and I thought hey, that’s a fantastic idea, great suggestion, Jackie!  Commander Shepard is an awesome character, and one of my favorite Bioware characters, hands-down.  Yes, in most Bioware games you get to highly customize your character, making them both malleable and subject to change, but they’re not quite as open-ended as in something like, say Skyrim, which allows them to tell a fantastic story along with giving you a sense of affecting the world around you.  This is on display more in the Mass Effect series than any other, with your choices having deep impact in the storyline throughout three complete games.

Though I play a guy when I play the games, I chose to highlight Femshep because I honestly believe her to be the “true” Commander Shepard, and because I think video games need more strong female leads.  Yeah, I’m that guy.  Sorry, if you’re gonna squawk about how females are represented fine in games and they should still be sex symbols and guys are discriminated against blah blah blah go yell about it somewhere else, please!  I’ll take my fully armored badass Femshep, thank you very much!

Anyway.

In The Commander Shepard Workout, we’re going to take a look at a lot of functional fitness.  Shepard isn’t a giant tank(even if you’re playing a heavy assault style), but she’s definitely tough enough to hold her own in hand-to-hand combat against a variety of alien life forms.  Real-world applicable, military-style fitness is what we’re going for, so you can kick ass and look good doing it.

In The Skills of Commander Shepard we’re going to take a real-world look at hacking, biotics, persuasion, and intimidation.  For hacking, we’re going to look into some basic programming and security, as well as places to learn more.  For biotics, we’re going to look into unlocking the potential of your own mind.  You may not be psychokinetically lifting geth tanks, but you’ll learn some cool optimization tips to unlock your own “superpowers.”  For persuasion and intimidation we’re going to look into body language and basic conversational skills, and how you can use them to influence other people.

Finally, in The Balance of Commander Shepard, we’re going to look at the Paragon/Renegade interplay in the game.  There’s a fine line between being a nice person, and a doormat, just like there’s a difference between being assertive and being an asshole.  When and where are these lines, and how to we know when to be a paragon, or a renegade?

Bonus!  You may already know of Malukah.  If you don’t, you should.  Anyway, if you go to her music page, she has a fantastic Mass Effect cover called Reignite, as well as awesome covers from other games, too!  Enjoy!

This one’s going to be tons of fun, and I look forward to it.  We continue tomorrow, with The Commander Shepard Workout.  Until then, make sure to like the Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, go follow the Tumblr as well, and continue to be awesome.

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace