8 Bits Of Science You Didn’t Know Ruin Iconic Video Game Scenes
3. Shepard Would Have Been Roasted To Powder – Mass Effect 2
It would be fair to say that no one expected BioWare’s shocking start to Mass Effect 2. Brutally killing off the legendary Commander Shepard by suffocating him then sending him plummeting to a fiery entry in a nearby atmosphere was a bold move, not to mention a genius one, both in marketing terms and making credible sense of his subsequent alliance with former mortal enemies, Cerberus.
But what of his corpse? Could it survive the ordeal? One could plausibly argue that by wearing a high-tech, shielded suit, his body could both weather the entry heating and the impact with the planet’s surface, indeed leaving something for Cerberus to salvage.
Except, even a high-tech suit isn’t enough. In Mass Effect Legendary Edition we learn that contact with molten lava kills Shepard instantly. Molten lava has a temperature range between 700 and 1200 degrees Celsius (1292-2192°F). Heating experienced by a human re-entering Earth’s atmosphere would be around 1650 °C (3002°F), as explained in this article by astrophysicist Jillian Scudder. With cremation requiring temperatures of 760 to 1150 °C (1400-2102°F) our iconic commander would be burnt to ash.
What about DNA? Well, as per this research paper DNA is no longer traceable after exposure to 1000 °C (1832°F), so Shepard would be well and truly dead.
Turns out the Illusive Man would have had to save the galaxy himself.