Mass Effect 2's Cut Asari Spectre Has Major Among Us Vibes
For many fans of the franchise, Mass Effect 2 is the standout game of the original trilogy. Its story is compelling and intriguing, with most of its crew members adding to the player’s investment in the story. The final mission of Mass Effect 2, known as the Suicide Mission, is truly a moment for players to worry about the safety of their team. If they make a wrong move or aren’t prepared for the trip to Omega, players stand the chance of losing one of their crewmates during the mission. Unlike Commander Shepard, though, the crew cannot come back from the dead, so the stakes are understandably high.
To create an in-depth dossier, though, some prospective crew member ideas had to be cut when creating Mass Effect 2. The cut list is extensive and full of interesting character ideas that could have been very intriguing additions to the game, but ultimately the developer settled on 12 crew members to accompany Shepard on their mission. Some cut characters, like the Techno-hippie, could have been immersion-breaking in the Mass Effect universe, but others, like the Asari Spectre, could have added a new storyline and given players a taste of Among Us long before the game was actually created.
In Mass Effect, a Spectre is part of ST&R, whose acronym means Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and is granted special access by the Citadel Council that essentially lets them operate outside the law. During the events of Mass Effect 1, Commander Shepard is instated as a Spectre, and this status continues throughout the rest of the trilogy in some capacity. Most of the time, the Council would rather not know how Spectres are getting their jobs done, but the title can be stripped from them if they grossly misuse their power as Spectre.
Being a Spectre is not only a big deal, but a big responsibility as well. In the last thousand years of the Mass Effect universe, only two people have turned down becoming a Spectre, though Commander Shepard can be the third if they choose not to take on the role again in Mass Effect 2. However, players really don’t get much of a choice in the long run, because Mass Effect 3 sees Commander Shepard as a Spectre again, regardless of player choice in ME2.
Spectres are powerful, intelligent, and must be as good at stealth as they are at combat. An Asari Spectre would have been an exciting addition to Mass Effect 2 for quite a few reasons, but it would have been very interesting to see two Spectres (Shepard and the Asari) work together, even though they both have jurisdiction to pretty much do whatever they want in the eyes of the Council law. They would have had to rely on mutual respect to work together because they could both essentially do whatever they wanted.
According to the document Mac Walters discusses regarding the cut Mass Effect 2 characters, it seems the Asari Spectre would have been playing their own game of Among Us. The brief description in the document says that the Asari Spectre would have been a 400-year-old female Asari, roughly translating to about 30 human years, and would have been on the hunt for Commander Shepard’s “imposter.”
Despite their stealth and tracking, the Asari Spectre would tackle Shepard, thinking the player was the Imposter. The introduction of the Spectre actually sounds pretty similar to how Peebee tackles Ryder upon their first meeting. Obviously a bit of a scuffle would ensue between Shepard and the Asari, especially because players wouldn’t know that the Asari is a Spectre.
From here, it’s pretty easy to hypothesize how the rest of the meeting would go, with Shepard having to prove they’re not the Imposter the Asari is trying to find. They could team up to find the true Imposter, much like how real crew members do in Among Us, and eventually bring the Imposter to justice. Whether it would be a violent justice or Council-handled one would probably be up to players.
Unfortunately, it seems the Asari Spectre was too ahead of her time, tracking down Imposters long before the creation of Among Us. Players cannot get to know this character in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, but there are still plenty of other characters that players can interact and fall in love with all over again.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be available May 14 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with enhancements for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Post a Comment