Mass Effect Trilogy: 9 Crazy Facts You Never Knew

8. Why There's A Thieving Cow In Mass Effect 1

Part of Mass Effect's appeal is the sheer exoticism of its aliens. The floating jellyfish-like Hanar; the lugribious, quadripedal Elcor; the light-fingered Shifty Looking Cow of Ontarom...

The last entry is a hidden Easter egg that only dedicated explorers of Mass Effect 1 discovered. Found on the planet Ontarom, the Shifty Looking Cow is a sextuple-limbed oddity that initially appears to be another example of ME1's exotic but harmless fauna.

However, should the player turn its back on it, the bovine bastard starts following Commander Shephard and pickpocketing credits, not stopping until the player either runs out of money or shoots it dead.

According to the Mass Effecti wiki, the creation of gaming's unlikeliest thief came about when Lead Designer Preston Watamaniuk was creeped out by the space cow's additional pair of limbs.

After uttering the immortal line "You can't trust any animal that can milk itself", Preston decided that the cow would naturally use its extra pair of hands to steal from anything foolish enough to wonder into its immediate vicinity.

Thus the legend of the Shifty Looking Cow was born.

In this post: 
Mass Effect
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Hello! My name's Iain Tayor. I write about video games, wrestling and comic books, and I apparently can't figure out how to set my profile picture correctly.