Games often feature moral choice systems that affect character development, but the Mass Effect trilogy is perhaps the most famous example. It was recently revealed that BioWare had another interesting detail planned that never came to fruition.
Even though the first Mass Effect is 17 years old and fans have studied the original trilogy inside and out, sometimes something new is still found. User Orikon discovered unused running animations for Shepard in the game files that were supposed to change depending on the path chosen.
Fun fact:
— Orikon (@masseffect_peom) December 15, 2024
It seems that there was, at some point, an idea of changing Shepard's sprint based on morality.
In the game files, there are animations for what's called Storm_Paragon and Storm_Renegade. "Storm" is the sprinting animation when you hold spacebar.#MassEffect #bioware pic.twitter.com/axAJ8KDORH
If the player were to follow the Paragon path, Shepard would run more upright and quickly. If the Renegade path were chosen, the character would run hunched over, running headfirst toward or away from enemies.
Fans have noted that the unused Renegade running animation is very similar to the Husky run in the games, a kind of Mass Effect zombie that victims of the Reaper invasion turn into. Interestingly, the developers planned to make Renegade Shepard’s run similar to that of his opponents.
No developers have yet commented on this discovery or the reasons why these animations were not included in the game. It is possible that they were created so early in development that most developers do not even know they exist.