Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy established Commander Shepard as an iconic protagonist and a valiant hero, but according to new data, Shepard is also a prolific murderer.
In Mass Effect, players can approach the game in many different ways. You can be either a heroic Paragon who tries to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, or you can be a ruthless Renegade who eliminates enemies both during the fights and in dialogue and cutscenes. A group of Redditors decides to find out how many living creatures Shepard could kill in total. To do this, they replayed the original trilogy, thoroughly counting every dead body in Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3.
Troubling statistics were shared with the community, indicating Commander Shepard is truly a mass murderer. To ensure the numbers were accurate, Redditors counted only direct kills by Shepard’s hand or gun. Players also deliberately murder everyone before Shepard's teammates could. Only story missions were counted for consistency (for Mass Effect 2 there were 4 exceptions, as the game forced you to make some side-quests to progress). Finally, only necessary kills were counted, and players actively use the infinite sprint to skip some gunfights during Mass Effect 3.
Here are the results:
- Mass Effect: 472 kills total
- Mass Effect 2: 837 kills total
- Mass Effect 3: 472 kills total
- The whole trilogy: 1,781 kills total
Obviously, those numbers are a lot higher for players who did all of the side-quests in the Mass Effect trilogy, killing everybody on every planet possible. Reapers, mercs, rachni, vorcha - you name it. Commander Shepard is always ready to make the galaxy a much emptier place.
So next time you'll play Mass Effect, just be aware that you are in control of a deadly, unstoppable weapon. It's the only reason the Illusive Man decided to bring Shepard back from the dead in Mass Effect 2.
Fans of the series can soon replay Shepard's adventures again thanks to the new Mass Effect Legendary Edition coming on May 14 on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PS5.