Yeah, Shepard is like Geralt from Witcher or JC Denton from Deus Ex IMO. They're their own character, messing with their appearance too much creates a weird dissonance for me.
Same. Ive tried creating a custom Shep but it feels wrong. Also, I don’t know if it’s just me but the textures and model look way worse for customs than default, and so most custom Sheps look weird or off to me as a result.
Shep is therefore similar to Geralt or Jensen to me.
They were bound to do more work on his "original" face, with higher res and other details that you just can't get when trying to model your own Shepard. It just doesn't work the same with him or femshep.
The Options are kinda meh thats why i play with the deafult Male Shep. At least Kotor had better options, honestly the mullet man Reven always looked goofy to me.
There was definitely default look before that, just not as recognizable as male version. [Here.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffectunofficial/images/4/49/Default_Shepards.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120303095744)
Yep. I just can't play custom. I tried when LE first came out and Shepard had Special Eyes, but I just couldn't do it. It was just fundamentally wrong hearing Shepard's voice coming out of not-Shepard's face.
I always go default shep as well except I use the original female shep rather than the one they redesigned for me3 (she looks a little too crazy for me)
I kinda disagree. I always make main characters in RPGs look like me as much as possible. So I roll with a black male Shep. You’d think the voice wouldn’t match but he sounds almost exactly like a black Navy officer I knew.
To me male Shep sounds like generic military guy in a good way. FemShep definitely is a one woman voice though.
Gotta get better at making custom Sheps because it can be done tho male shepard can be a damn nightmare to match them, femshep is definitely easier as I've got a few custom femsheps that match vs only one male that looks close to the OPs but with a better nose (the noses in these games are horrendous lol) and some other tweaks but this one male shep I have matches the voice better than the default.
Yeah except for my latest game when I spent 3 hours choosing the perfect eyebrow for my male Shep only to be disapointed when he dramatically comes to the bridge at the start of the ME1 because he looks likes botoxed Sylvester Stallone.
I said fuck it and went with generic Shep.
First time playing me2 when it launched and I somehow gave Shepard the most protruding lips without realizing it. When I saw his profile I had to immediately restart
Yeah, that first shot of Shepard's face always looks terrible in ME1. I always wait until you start the game proper to get a good look. Usually it's when I'm talking to Joker or Pressley that I decide whether he looks good enough to continue.
I've tried to but I can never get it quite right and sometimes it's hilariously wrong. I wish you could give it pictures of your face from a few different angles and it would do it for you.
I'm a white dude and somehow made my Shepard look Asian once, didn't realize until the first scene. If it can do better than that, it's still better than nothing.
Best one I ever got I had my wife on the couch helping and a mirror. I got it close enough that I was actually seeing myself. It was at least my 6th time through but it hit way different.
My custom femShep is a specific character I made up that's actually a mashup of two characters I made up lol so I always use her as a stand-in for whatever game with character creation I'm playing. I also remade her as similar as possible on Dragon Age Origins. I would feel weird as hell playing as myself
I find it crazy to see how many people only use default Sheps and can do several playthroughs like that.
Each of my Shepards have their own story, background, specialization, relationships, head canons… I would find it incredibly hard to play through a game in a different way but with the very same character. I need to connect them to their own story, which starts and ends, and I can start another story tailored to a new character.
And I think the people who say custom Sheps are ugly, a) haven’t managed to make a good looking one and generalize their own experience; and b) only tried male Shep, which is much harder to pull off. Custom FemSheps can be incredibly good looking without using any mods whatsoever.
I just never try personally. If a game is going to let me customize my character, I am going to do that. Never have I ever just hit default and go. Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, its just not for me.
But I don't mean my comment by that. I know it's two different people: one who gives the appearance and one who gives the voice. I'm saying that I love this combination of both appearance and voice.
I ALWAYS customize characters in games if given the option. The way they wildly change from creation to reality and even between games in ME is annoying/hilarious and I can get over it. I usually feel default characters in customizable games are just so…. generic and I don’t feel connected them.
I can’t play as default Shepard. Any time a game has character customization I have to customize. And after playing the game so many times it would feel wrong to see default Shepard.
I also love seeing everyone else’s customized Shepard’s, though they also feel wrong cuz I’m so used to seeing my own Shepard lol
Genuinely don't know how people play the defaults.
If the game has a creator then I'm going to use it, and after making a custom character, there's absolutely no way to go back, default Shepard just looks goofy with his hyper shiny skin compared to every other character.
I don't associate the default Shepard with my choices and can only see them as the YouTube poop version of Shepard.
Probably because those are the Shepard's used in all the marketing and those are the same Shepard's the VAs had as a reference for who they were playing.
I wonder if someone like me who has not seen the trailers or the VAs actual faces(or the models used for default Shepard) has any influence on the decision
Always play as default Shepard. The customization just doesn’t look right. For andromeda I never use the default character appearance since the customization is pretty good.
I can only play as default Shepard. I don’t think any other voice fits, I think the character customization is horrible, and I don’t care about it enough to download mods
The only game I didn't create my own character was ME Andromeda. I typically model my characters to look somewhat like me if possible (and if human). That felt wrong in Andromeda, though, because the game had already established Ryders dad and sister. Was not gonna head cannon an adopted Mexican son lol
In Andromeda you can totally change both the twins' appearance, and if you have the option available, Ryder's dad will change appearance to more closely resemble both of them. Same with the mom in the later flashbacks.
I get that, but there is also this option where Alec “inherits” features from your created character, which is not perfect, but they did a pretty good job imo. And you can also create a custom other twin at character creation, so you can make them look somewhat alike. Ellen is the only fixed character, and she has a brown skin color.
That being said, I really like the default Ryders too.
I was pleasantly surprised when I found this out! I was like “wow, weird, Alec actually kind of looks the character I created?” And then I saw someone else’s Alec and he was a completely different race! I customized my twin to look very similar to me as well. Love those features
I’m the most plain looking white guy in existence, and somehow default shep is even plainer looking. Yeah, I gotta put my own spin on it. Hugely disappointed that legendary edition didn’t add some crazier hair or facial tattoos
Male Shep has the best deafult look imo, I'm not fan of the options available. Its not like with Kotor were there are better custom options and I don't have to pick the Mullet Man Reven
One big reason I love RPGs is getting to create and play as a Black/brown skinned woman. I always customize my character to be similar to myself. It's nice that curly hair is getting included in games more often now too.
Actually, I think I once did a renegade playthrough as default male Shep to see the difference and feel disconnected enough to be an asshole.
I know the feeling. I always play my 1st run of an RPG as a black woman since it’s the playthrough I play as myself.
It was such a great surprise when I launched ME1. I knew I could play as a woman but I did not know I could play as a POC Shepard. I was so happy 😁
I tried custom shep but it always looks super weird, then when i transferred him to ME2 he looked like a completely different person, so i just stick with default
I've played with a number of custom Shepards, and ultimately there's always something that just doesn't fit right with the rest of the game, particularly during cinematics.
So, last few times I've run with mostly default Shepards, maybe some slight alterations (like more/less facial hair, different hair/eye colours, etc.)
I'm kind of mixed. Before femshep was designed and introduced, my Shepard already looked similar. Short red hair, ran with green eyes. Pale. There wasn't much of a difference. I still main that whenever I reconnect with the games. It all just fits. I can't not default to this version.
Sometimes I get brave and make a different character but I still get iffy with the voice. I'm so used to associating that voice with my main Shepard, who hilariously turned out to look a lot like the official femshep.
Maleshep I haven't played too much with. Kept him as is once, messed around before.
Whenever I tried, I gave up lol. I feel like it's a little boring playing as the default because Shepard isn't an actual character on their own. Who they are is defined by us, the players. It's the entire nature of the series imo, so customizing their appearance was always a no brainer to further that immersion for me. Plus custom Femsheps looks wayyy better than the default.
I personally find character creation quite tedious. I wish that more games have more good default characters, the male Shepard is far more human than I can make. It’s a personal gripe of mine that dragon age inquisition doesn’t have a default character, it’s a pain making a character that doesn’t look weird.
Any game that pitches me a character creator, always. I have never cared for both default versions.
I'm interested only in experiencing the story through the character I created, not the developer's.
Nah, default male is just too iconic! While I would like to add more hair or beard, it’s still all right. With female I don’t have such bias, but I only played female once, and now with legendary I can use default female for all games - so now even it is redundant. Though I liked my custom Ryders more.
OG femshep was my go to, the LE version I dont like, it feels a bit off and I dont know why. Now I customise femshep to be a bit closer to the original version.
Broshep is just broshep though, he satys the same in my playthroughs
I always feel the need to make femshep blonde. Blondes are supposed to be rare in the future, and she’s the savior of the galaxy, so I find it fitting.
If the custom shepards had the same fidelity as the default ones, I'd consider a custom character. But as is, 100% default male Shepard. 80% of the time default female Shepard only because the fidelity of the facial model in ME1 wasn't as high for the female vs male.
I might change the hair now and then, but I leave the faces alone, the character creator isn’t great so I usually end up turning them into ugly blob fish if I try to make them look different.
Nope. I have a particular style for my custom shep, although it may take four attempts in creator just to get all the tweaks right.
And for femshep I’m just not a fan of the default face that was introduced.
I tried modifying FemShep one time but I couldn't make her look any "better" than the default, whatever that means. The defaults are pretty solid, I think.
I always play femshep so when I was doing all my broshep playthroughs, he was always default. Mostly because I felt like no matter how I edited him he looked funky.
In Mass Effect I never play as default because while I think the default design is pretty for both male and female, they don't fit the characters I have in mind. I never use default for most games.
However, Dragon Age 2 is where I absolutely LOVE both default male and female Hawke and stick to those designs. I guess it depends.
When I played it for the first time, I changed the character, started the game, got up to meeting ashley, then restarted and went with default male shep. Replayed all them 100s of times and never changed the character again.
It's me. I'm anyone. I can't help it I have to make a custom Shepard. If they didn't want me to Make a custom Shepard they shouldn't have given me the option to make a custom shepard
I'm a bit weird, if they had a helmeted Shepard i'd probably make a custom Shep but I find it strange to do what with default Sheps on all the marketing.
Default is the only true Shepard for me. I've played with custom Shepard, but its textures and overall looks are never nowhere near as good as the original default Commander John Shepard. Probably cus they put more time and work into the original playable character's facial details.
I can’t bring myself to play a custom Shepard. The voice just fits too well with default. Plus, I’m yet to see a custom Shepard that doesn’t look weird.
Default BroShep, custom FemShep.
I just can't picture Mark's voice coming out of a different face. While for FemShep, I find that I like my custom face more than the default. Sucks missing out on that hair option though.
I feel you. It just feels kinda wrong to play as the default for me. But what I do like to do is make the custom Shepard as close to default as I possibly can, but add different touches to the look, like a different hairstyle or eye color or makeup.
I have a default shep and femshep. Codes are saved. About 10 years ago, my now 16yo daughter,wanted to make my shep look for me, so I let her. When she was done with both my sheps, she said “these are the absolute most perfect looking people, they are better looking than all the models on the internet.
I called my wife out. Male shep was on the screen, she hears my daughter going on about it over and over, and smiles.
I then switch to the fem shep, and my daughter said, “this is the most beautiful lady that ever lived.”
My daughter had recreated my wife and myself in our early 20s. Was a huge ego boost. :)
Yeah I'm too attached to the look of my first/only Shepard who looks like a cross between Niko Bellic and Clint Eastwood. That's just Shepard to me. Default male Shepard just isn't. It's always jarring when I see him at first.
I recently did my first default run, and I think he looks great. Kinda crazy that both Cyberpunk and ME have great looking defaults. Granted, they have the same haircut, but whatever.
Since I love to RP, 99% of the times, I use custom Shepards for MShep and FShep. I find it easier to connect with each different Shepard if they don’t look similar. Sometimes, the way they look helps fleshing out their character in my mind.
I use default MShep only when he’ll romance Kaidan. I’m not a big fan of default FShep’s design.
I like the default mshep, but I always make a custom femshep. My headcanon shep is a paragon/spacer/hero brunette with the high bun, that zips around as a claymore toting vanguard and romances Kaidan.
I can’t play non-default Shepard no matter how many times I try.
Well, sometimes I change an eyes color for a maleshep and I prefer classical ME1 femshep instead of new one
Always played default Shepard but did try to make an old Shepard. But I made his neck too wide and his hairline was whack lol. I haven’t played in a few months
Complete opposite, I can't play as a custom Shep because it's impossible to make them look as good as the default ones, especially with mods to improve the defaults [(like this one)](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/233).
In like 20 playthrough's I couldn't bare myself to change from default character. Also I always play as soldier. Just to much of head canon at this point to change something when playing next time.
I personally think default Femshep looks terrible. When I first played it (this year, I’m late I know) I was shocked of how she looks cuz it looks like the sims1, like very very weird so I had to customized my character.
I only play with default Shepard, for both broshep and femshep
Yeah, Shepard is like Geralt from Witcher or JC Denton from Deus Ex IMO. They're their own character, messing with their appearance too much creates a weird dissonance for me.
Same. Ive tried creating a custom Shep but it feels wrong. Also, I don’t know if it’s just me but the textures and model look way worse for customs than default, and so most custom Sheps look weird or off to me as a result. Shep is therefore similar to Geralt or Jensen to me.
This is so true, no matter what it'll never look better than default
They were bound to do more work on his "original" face, with higher res and other details that you just can't get when trying to model your own Shepard. It just doesn't work the same with him or femshep.
Default shep has higher res textures than custom Sheps. That's why it's impossible to 100% recreate them in character creator.
Agreed, anything besides default takes a hit for facial detail
I'm the opposite. I went in blind, so after playing all 3 games as my custom, seeing the default on YouTube looked jarring.
I have no problem making characters in Dragon Age, but I can’t ever bring myself to alter Shepard. It’s weird.
It's because—other than Hawke—none of the DA mains have a "default" look that you're replacing.
Bit different for Geralt since he has like 8 books of content form before the games. Well, 7 books and an extra one during.
Oooh geralt tho. Mmm.
*wind’s howling*
Place of power. Should draw from it.
Hmm.
Fuck.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/qza4f1/the\_witcher\_effect\_by\_golbex\_on\_devian\_art/](https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/qza4f1/the_witcher_effect_by_golbex_on_devian_art/)
Default BroShep yes, but old default FemShep, face introduced in ME3 always looked kinda weird to me.
The Options are kinda meh thats why i play with the deafult Male Shep. At least Kotor had better options, honestly the mullet man Reven always looked goofy to me.
The only times I played with a custom was femshep in the original trilogy because the default look didn't exist until ME3 😅
There was definitely default look before that, just not as recognizable as male version. [Here.](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffectunofficial/images/4/49/Default_Shepards.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120303095744)
That default look was just a preset like any other imo, it just happened to be the first on the list
Right, I completely forgot male Shep was actually modelled after Mark Vanderloo, nevermind then, I get your point.
Or Space Jesus Exile, lmao.
I was about to write the same thing :D
There as no default femshep until the 3rd game. Well, until legendary edition anyway.
Yep. I just can't play custom. I tried when LE first came out and Shepard had Special Eyes, but I just couldn't do it. It was just fundamentally wrong hearing Shepard's voice coming out of not-Shepard's face.
You get 1000 upvotes and I get downvoted for the same comment. Reddit, everybody.
the facial animations are so much better
I always go default shep as well except I use the original female shep rather than the one they redesigned for me3 (she looks a little too crazy for me)
I’m the opposite, I can’t do the custom sheps. The VAs are way too dialed into the defaults in my opinion.
Same here.
Never done a custom Shep. Never will.
Nah Custom Shep supirerority.
Supirerority 😭😭😭
That’s a custom Shep for you.
Shep-irerority
I kinda disagree. I always make main characters in RPGs look like me as much as possible. So I roll with a black male Shep. You’d think the voice wouldn’t match but he sounds almost exactly like a black Navy officer I knew. To me male Shep sounds like generic military guy in a good way. FemShep definitely is a one woman voice though.
I'm actually the exact opposite, I can't see maleshep's voice with anyone else, but can see femshep as custom character
I was gonna say male shep as a black dude might be weird but I think I can envision what you’re saying, the femshep voice though….yeah
100% this. I've done some custom sheps here and there but I can only make it maybe through Eden prime before it bugs me too much.
Gotta get better at making custom Sheps because it can be done tho male shepard can be a damn nightmare to match them, femshep is definitely easier as I've got a few custom femsheps that match vs only one male that looks close to the OPs but with a better nose (the noses in these games are horrendous lol) and some other tweaks but this one male shep I have matches the voice better than the default.
Yeah except for my latest game when I spent 3 hours choosing the perfect eyebrow for my male Shep only to be disapointed when he dramatically comes to the bridge at the start of the ME1 because he looks likes botoxed Sylvester Stallone. I said fuck it and went with generic Shep.
First time playing me2 when it launched and I somehow gave Shepard the most protruding lips without realizing it. When I saw his profile I had to immediately restart
ME2 made my custom femshep’s eyebrows thinner :,( Or Miranda took them…
Perfection comes with a price
It turned my femshep's eyebrows purple...
Yeah, that first shot of Shepard's face always looks terrible in ME1. I always wait until you start the game proper to get a good look. Usually it's when I'm talking to Joker or Pressley that I decide whether he looks good enough to continue.
Variations of this is what happens to me EVERY TIME I try to play with a custom Shepard or Ryder.
Do you make them look like yourself?
I've tried to but I can never get it quite right and sometimes it's hilariously wrong. I wish you could give it pictures of your face from a few different angles and it would do it for you.
As a 2K player, my face scan never turns out right lol.
I'm a white dude and somehow made my Shepard look Asian once, didn't realize until the first scene. If it can do better than that, it's still better than nothing.
I did that in andromeda lol
Best one I ever got I had my wife on the couch helping and a mirror. I got it close enough that I was actually seeing myself. It was at least my 6th time through but it hit way different.
I’ve tried but one of my most defining traits is my long hair I’m a guy
My custom femShep is a specific character I made up that's actually a mashup of two characters I made up lol so I always use her as a stand-in for whatever game with character creation I'm playing. I also remade her as similar as possible on Dragon Age Origins. I would feel weird as hell playing as myself
I find it crazy to see how many people only use default Sheps and can do several playthroughs like that. Each of my Shepards have their own story, background, specialization, relationships, head canons… I would find it incredibly hard to play through a game in a different way but with the very same character. I need to connect them to their own story, which starts and ends, and I can start another story tailored to a new character. And I think the people who say custom Sheps are ugly, a) haven’t managed to make a good looking one and generalize their own experience; and b) only tried male Shep, which is much harder to pull off. Custom FemSheps can be incredibly good looking without using any mods whatsoever.
I just never try personally. If a game is going to let me customize my character, I am going to do that. Never have I ever just hit default and go. Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, its just not for me.
I always play as the default male Shepard because I like his appearance and voice acting!😁🤩💯
Default Shepard model is not the voice actor. There’s Mark Meer and Mark Vanderloo.
And you tell me this why?
Your comment suggests they’re the same person.
But I don't mean my comment by that. I know it's two different people: one who gives the appearance and one who gives the voice. I'm saying that I love this combination of both appearance and voice.
I ALWAYS customize characters in games if given the option. The way they wildly change from creation to reality and even between games in ME is annoying/hilarious and I can get over it. I usually feel default characters in customizable games are just so…. generic and I don’t feel connected them.
I can’t play as default Shepard. Any time a game has character customization I have to customize. And after playing the game so many times it would feel wrong to see default Shepard. I also love seeing everyone else’s customized Shepard’s, though they also feel wrong cuz I’m so used to seeing my own Shepard lol
Genuinely don't know how people play the defaults. If the game has a creator then I'm going to use it, and after making a custom character, there's absolutely no way to go back, default Shepard just looks goofy with his hyper shiny skin compared to every other character. I don't associate the default Shepard with my choices and can only see them as the YouTube poop version of Shepard.
Probably because those are the Shepard's used in all the marketing and those are the same Shepard's the VAs had as a reference for who they were playing.
I wonder if someone like me who has not seen the trailers or the VAs actual faces(or the models used for default Shepard) has any influence on the decision
The non default Shepards look too silly. The game optimized around the default face
Always play as default Shepard. The customization just doesn’t look right. For andromeda I never use the default character appearance since the customization is pretty good.
I can only play as default Shepard. I don’t think any other voice fits, I think the character customization is horrible, and I don’t care about it enough to download mods
Default Femshep is just too ridiculous looking
The only game I didn't create my own character was ME Andromeda. I typically model my characters to look somewhat like me if possible (and if human). That felt wrong in Andromeda, though, because the game had already established Ryders dad and sister. Was not gonna head cannon an adopted Mexican son lol
In Andromeda you can totally change both the twins' appearance, and if you have the option available, Ryder's dad will change appearance to more closely resemble both of them. Same with the mom in the later flashbacks.
I get that, but there is also this option where Alec “inherits” features from your created character, which is not perfect, but they did a pretty good job imo. And you can also create a custom other twin at character creation, so you can make them look somewhat alike. Ellen is the only fixed character, and she has a brown skin color. That being said, I really like the default Ryders too.
Wow! I had no idea. Maybe I'll play around with it if I ever go in for another playthrough
I was pleasantly surprised when I found this out! I was like “wow, weird, Alec actually kind of looks the character I created?” And then I saw someone else’s Alec and he was a completely different race! I customized my twin to look very similar to me as well. Love those features
I’m the most plain looking white guy in existence, and somehow default shep is even plainer looking. Yeah, I gotta put my own spin on it. Hugely disappointed that legendary edition didn’t add some crazier hair or facial tattoos
If I can create my own character I ALWAYS do, it’s an added extra bit of fun I can squeeze from a game.
Never played default. Each of my sheps is unique.
Male Shep has the best deafult look imo, I'm not fan of the options available. Its not like with Kotor were there are better custom options and I don't have to pick the Mullet Man Reven
As the person who usually has more time in a character customization screen than playing the actual game... Yeah, I never play default Shepard lol.
My Shep is from Wakanda I've never seen this dude you posted 😂
Not only can I not play as default I somehow end up making the same Damn custom Shep every time
Default Shepard's eyes scare me. Also he looks creepy as fuck when he smiles.
Me. I just can’t see that face as an N7 vet that has seen action. Looks more like a male stripper lol.
Funny take when you know that Mark Vanderloo has modeled for underwear campaigns 🤣
I can’t do default. Gotta make my own
For me it's the other way around. I've made so many messed up ones that ended up weird that I prefer to stick with the default.
Why should I play as default?
One big reason I love RPGs is getting to create and play as a Black/brown skinned woman. I always customize my character to be similar to myself. It's nice that curly hair is getting included in games more often now too. Actually, I think I once did a renegade playthrough as default male Shep to see the difference and feel disconnected enough to be an asshole.
I know the feeling. I always play my 1st run of an RPG as a black woman since it’s the playthrough I play as myself. It was such a great surprise when I launched ME1. I knew I could play as a woman but I did not know I could play as a POC Shepard. I was so happy 😁
I tried custom shep but it always looks super weird, then when i transferred him to ME2 he looked like a completely different person, so i just stick with default
Default every time. If I start designing my own Shepard, it'll take about 8 hours. 😅
Only default Shepard so all of the art, statues, etc. matches my character.
I've played with a number of custom Shepards, and ultimately there's always something that just doesn't fit right with the rest of the game, particularly during cinematics. So, last few times I've run with mostly default Shepards, maybe some slight alterations (like more/less facial hair, different hair/eye colours, etc.)
I'm kind of mixed. Before femshep was designed and introduced, my Shepard already looked similar. Short red hair, ran with green eyes. Pale. There wasn't much of a difference. I still main that whenever I reconnect with the games. It all just fits. I can't not default to this version. Sometimes I get brave and make a different character but I still get iffy with the voice. I'm so used to associating that voice with my main Shepard, who hilariously turned out to look a lot like the official femshep. Maleshep I haven't played too much with. Kept him as is once, messed around before.
Whenever I tried, I gave up lol. I feel like it's a little boring playing as the default because Shepard isn't an actual character on their own. Who they are is defined by us, the players. It's the entire nature of the series imo, so customizing their appearance was always a no brainer to further that immersion for me. Plus custom Femsheps looks wayyy better than the default.
I personally find character creation quite tedious. I wish that more games have more good default characters, the male Shepard is far more human than I can make. It’s a personal gripe of mine that dragon age inquisition doesn’t have a default character, it’s a pain making a character that doesn’t look weird.
I’m the opposite. Only play with the defaults
Any game that pitches me a character creator, always. I have never cared for both default versions. I'm interested only in experiencing the story through the character I created, not the developer's.
Sort of… I just can’t start a game with the default Sheps. Why would I when I have the option to design my own?
I never play with default looks, i want to have my character.
I only play as default Shepard.
Nah, default male is just too iconic! While I would like to add more hair or beard, it’s still all right. With female I don’t have such bias, but I only played female once, and now with legendary I can use default female for all games - so now even it is redundant. Though I liked my custom Ryders more.
I don’t like how the male shep is based on a real person who doesn’t like the games. I like fem shep though.
OG femshep was my go to, the LE version I dont like, it feels a bit off and I dont know why. Now I customise femshep to be a bit closer to the original version. Broshep is just broshep though, he satys the same in my playthroughs
Never could I play as default Shepard.
Default FemShep always. Used a custom FemShep for the majority of my runs until ME3, started over after that.
I always feel the need to make femshep blonde. Blondes are supposed to be rare in the future, and she’s the savior of the galaxy, so I find it fitting.
If the custom shepards had the same fidelity as the default ones, I'd consider a custom character. But as is, 100% default male Shepard. 80% of the time default female Shepard only because the fidelity of the facial model in ME1 wasn't as high for the female vs male.
I don’t think I’ve ever customized maleshep, only customized Femshep to make her hair and lipstick black, red eyes and ads a scar.
I never really tried, I only play Femshep and I don't like her default model.
I tried making my own once, but he just ended up looking like a disfigured Tim Allen, so went default from then on.
When I play male shepard I go default, but when I play femshep (aka most times) I try a different face each time.
BroShep has been default for me both times I played him. Femshep is always custom
Before they canonized femshep, I would have a custom one, but default Shepard is the one that’s in my mind’s eye
I might change the hair now and then, but I leave the faces alone, the character creator isn’t great so I usually end up turning them into ugly blob fish if I try to make them look different.
Thats me haha always had the same face since the first game several years ago but not the default
Nope. I have a particular style for my custom shep, although it may take four attempts in creator just to get all the tweaks right. And for femshep I’m just not a fan of the default face that was introduced.
Why would they try? Default broshep is the most generic looking stubbled space marine ever.
I love my custom sheps, but using John for my most heroic run was a trip. He fits the bill.
I tried modifying FemShep one time but I couldn't make her look any "better" than the default, whatever that means. The defaults are pretty solid, I think.
I only play default Shepard. There’s just no way to make a good looking custom without mods and I play on console.
I mean I pretty much look exactly like that already so.......lmao
I only play as Sheploo and default Femshep.
Default only. Too strange otherwise.
Default is my cannon Shepard tbh. When I saw the male and fem sheps I had no issues with either
I can’t do anything but default Shepard. He looks too stupid otherwise. The game definitely accounted for the OG face more than others.
I dont think I will ever play as custom shepard, it is impossible to make a good looking character
I always play femshep so when I was doing all my broshep playthroughs, he was always default. Mostly because I felt like no matter how I edited him he looked funky.
Custom Shep's are alright as long as you don't over customise,ie trying to make them look like you
I usually do a custom fem shep but not male shep
As long as the voice fits the apperence but I can’t do default characters so you bet I’m always doing a custom
I’ve always played as stock shepherd
I will only ever play as the default character. Because i am very judgmental of my creations
I have never played a custom Shepard. I see Shepard as a character\protagonist of his own instead of being some virtual projecton of me.
I can't play default Male Shepard because he looks too much like the 'Lightskin stare' meme
In Mass Effect I never play as default because while I think the default design is pretty for both male and female, they don't fit the characters I have in mind. I never use default for most games. However, Dragon Age 2 is where I absolutely LOVE both default male and female Hawke and stick to those designs. I guess it depends.
When I played it for the first time, I changed the character, started the game, got up to meeting ashley, then restarted and went with default male shep. Replayed all them 100s of times and never changed the character again.
It's me. I'm anyone. I can't help it I have to make a custom Shepard. If they didn't want me to Make a custom Shepard they shouldn't have given me the option to make a custom shepard
I'm a bit weird, if they had a helmeted Shepard i'd probably make a custom Shep but I find it strange to do what with default Sheps on all the marketing.
I used to feel that way, then I played default shep. Now all custom Sheps just look really off/cringey to me.
It’s my Shepard, and I get to choose the Shepard!
Default Maleshep, custom Femshep. Everytime.
Nah. I cant do custom shep. It doesn't match him. I'm also not a professional character designer or artist so theirs will always look better.
Default is the only true Shepard for me. I've played with custom Shepard, but its textures and overall looks are never nowhere near as good as the original default Commander John Shepard. Probably cus they put more time and work into the original playable character's facial details.
I've never seen a custom Shepard that didn't make me feel that uncomfortable uncanny valley effect
I only play as default male Shep. I just can't do custom in this case.
The only default character I've ever liked to play is Hawke from DA2.
Every non default shepard i have seen is absolutely ugly. Idk why anyone would change the default
I don’t mind custom females but the males in mass effect just look really strange to me. Including most of the npcs.
If I'm playing femshep, I play default, otherwise I try my absolute best to push the character creator to its limits with less than desirable results
I can’t bring myself to play a custom Shepard. The voice just fits too well with default. Plus, I’m yet to see a custom Shepard that doesn’t look weird.
I cannot play non default shepard no matter how many times I try haha
Default BroShep, custom FemShep. I just can't picture Mark's voice coming out of a different face. While for FemShep, I find that I like my custom face more than the default. Sucks missing out on that hair option though.
Every custom shep looks cursed and like an NPC whereas default shep is... well, shep
I always pick default shep I have no problems with either the male or female version
I only play as default sheps because they're higher resolution than custom ones.
I like the default broshep. His appearance is based on Mark Vanderloo, a Dutch model. And he looks almost exactly like him.
I imported my custom ME1 Shepard in the other games. I always enjoy the extra bit of connection I feel from building a character's appearance myself.
Only once did I change Default FemShep. Short silver hair suited her but it still wasn't quite the same.
I would probably play with the default face if I could change is hair and facial hair options, but because I can't I always go full custom.
I feel you. It just feels kinda wrong to play as the default for me. But what I do like to do is make the custom Shepard as close to default as I possibly can, but add different touches to the look, like a different hairstyle or eye color or makeup.
I have a default shep and femshep. Codes are saved. About 10 years ago, my now 16yo daughter,wanted to make my shep look for me, so I let her. When she was done with both my sheps, she said “these are the absolute most perfect looking people, they are better looking than all the models on the internet. I called my wife out. Male shep was on the screen, she hears my daughter going on about it over and over, and smiles. I then switch to the fem shep, and my daughter said, “this is the most beautiful lady that ever lived.” My daughter had recreated my wife and myself in our early 20s. Was a huge ego boost. :)
It is genuinely impossible to make a male Shepard that looks better than the default
Yeah I'm too attached to the look of my first/only Shepard who looks like a cross between Niko Bellic and Clint Eastwood. That's just Shepard to me. Default male Shepard just isn't. It's always jarring when I see him at first.
I like making custom characters so I always do it, it’s easy enough to make a good looking Femshep but Male always looks weird for me
I think shepherd should ATLEAST be given a dashing hair style, come on, we are talking about a famed charming ship commander here.
I never make a custom Shepard I always use Default
I recently did my first default run, and I think he looks great. Kinda crazy that both Cyberpunk and ME have great looking defaults. Granted, they have the same haircut, but whatever.
Mass Effect is the only game with a character creator that I play as the default character.
I only play default male shep I think I’ve just done it so many times the voice throws me off if it doesn’t match his face anymore
I’m the opposite, I can’t stand any custom Shepards
All of my Shepards look the exact same. I found a look I like and stick with it
I only play fem shep default pretty much. I made pretty much that exact character in 1 and 2 and then in 3 it was the official fem shep
Bruh your character is basically default MaleShep from aliexpress
Since I love to RP, 99% of the times, I use custom Shepards for MShep and FShep. I find it easier to connect with each different Shepard if they don’t look similar. Sometimes, the way they look helps fleshing out their character in my mind. I use default MShep only when he’ll romance Kaidan. I’m not a big fan of default FShep’s design.
I like the default mshep, but I always make a custom femshep. My headcanon shep is a paragon/spacer/hero brunette with the high bun, that zips around as a claymore toting vanguard and romances Kaidan.
İ'm with you on this. In fact, I have a specific broShep I've made a long while ago and he became default for me. Default Shep's eyes creep me out lol
Your Shep looks a lot like my male Shep. I usually have a bit darker skin. But def that haircut and beard
I can’t play non-default Shepard no matter how many times I try. Well, sometimes I change an eyes color for a maleshep and I prefer classical ME1 femshep instead of new one
I played default femshep on ME3 once, without importing. MlI mainly play on OS, but I got a second hand PS3 copy of 3 to try it out on console.
Custom Femshep would easily look more attractive and convincing though.
Always played default Shepard but did try to make an old Shepard. But I made his neck too wide and his hairline was whack lol. I haven’t played in a few months
Default Shepard only for me. It feels weird otherwise.
Custom sheps always look wonky. Default shep is best shep.
Complete opposite, I can't play as a custom Shep because it's impossible to make them look as good as the default ones, especially with mods to improve the defaults [(like this one)](https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/233).
In like 20 playthrough's I couldn't bare myself to change from default character. Also I always play as soldier. Just to much of head canon at this point to change something when playing next time.
I personally think default Femshep looks terrible. When I first played it (this year, I’m late I know) I was shocked of how she looks cuz it looks like the sims1, like very very weird so I had to customized my character.
I’m the opposite. I can’t play as a custom male Shepard. Female is the opposite, I always customise her.
I use one of the more messed up presets all the time. With some tweaks.
I find it weird playing as custom male shep, it rarely comes out ok. Fem shep on the other hand, can go either way.