Mass Effect: 8 Weirdest Enemies (And What They Represent)

The Rachni crop up a few times throughout Mass Effect's original trilogy, with the choice to wipe out the entire species laid at Shepard's feet not once, but twice as the series plays out.

The creatures themselves are insect-like by nature, appearing as hard and chitinous with many legs and eyes in some sort of amalgamation of all the most repulsive parts of creepy crawlies. Whilst grotesque, their history is even scarier, revealing long years of battle between the Rachni and other species as they instantly started hostilities and multiplied to an insane degree.

And whilst it's easy enough to call them 'bugs', there's clearly some other sci-fi influences that make their home with the Rachni. The Formics of Ender's Game share an eerily similar arc and questionable decision as to whether to commit genocide on their species or not, despite having intelligent, communicative queen leaders that have simply been misunderstood for as long as they've existed.

The Rachni also are most closely represented by the Arachnids in Starship Troopers, with the Rachni name even being derivative of the movie's own enemies since they've just taken the first and last letters off.

Scientist Flores that works on the Rachni project in game also seems like a nod to Dizzy, or Private Flores, from the film, too.