If the epic space opera feel and exciting missions aren't enough for you, one of Mass Effect's areas where it really excels is creating a collection of different alien species that look, act and feel different from one another. Anyone who has played the first three games knows the difference between the Rachni and the Turians, or the differences between the methodical Elcor and the entirely female race, the Asari. The aliens in Mass Effect, unlike in many other sci-fi media, are believable. They have their own society and ideals and - in a break from tradition - usually don't want to kill every human they see outright (just don't think about the Reapers and the Collectors). In the movie, the aliens need to be done right and feel like they've been done to the same standard as the games. Given our advances in CGI nowadays, there's no reason why they can't look like their gaming counterparts and have everything from the Turian's trademark facial structure to the jelly squidy bits of the Hanar be presented in beautiful fashion. It's also important to remember that every alien in ME also looks different - even though they're the same species, it's easily apparent that individuals are different from each other, rather than uniformly looking the same across the board. Just like the games, the aliens should also be involved heavily in the plot, forming the backbone of the main character's squad and also forming a believable society that isn't dominated by humans (let us remember that in Mass Effect, humans are the newest race to the intergalactic alien party). For best results, we'd probably like to see the aliens performed using motion capture by established actors before the technical wizards lay on the alien makeup. Andy Serkis for Mass Effect anyone?
Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.
