Poll: Female Shepard vs Male Shepard - Mass Effect Series

[Parasondox]

Hello again Escapist,
I'm curious to see and find out from those who are fan of the Mass Effect series and those who just play it for fun, when creating and developing your character, who would you prefer playing as. Female Commander Shepard or Male Commander Shepard?

Share your thoughts and views below on what stood out for you more in the character and how you found it. Added bonus what other gaming character with a choice of male and female would you play as.

 

[tippy2k2]

I always play as Male Shepard.

In any game that gives me customization options, I always attempt to create myself. I do what I think I would do in the given situation and it's just easier to keep that mindset when my onscreen persona also has a ding dong.

Spoiler: MMMMmmmmmmmmmm, delicious!

Bastard always gets way more space booty than I do though T.T

 

[Zhukov]

I have Shepards of both genders, but I always preferred female Shepard due to the superior voice acting.

Jennifer Hale actually puts some nuance into her voice. Mark Meer alternates between sounding bored and sounding hungover. Although, to be fair, he did improve over the course of the series. Then again, so did Hale, so dude-Shep was still left in the dust throughout.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I played Male Shepard in the first one, found him to be voice-acted at a pretty below-par standard. I switched to Female Shepard in Mass Effect 2, one part to avoid the male voice actor and one part to avoid the romance that I was getting weirded out by in the first Mass Effect.

Then, because I never finished Mass Effect 1 and couldn't carry my save over, the game automatically said that I had to have saved potential love interest Kaiden instead of not love interest Ashley. Ashley was my favorite squad-buddy next to Wrex, come on. And I figured, since the 'sort of' default of Mass Effect 1 was for Wrex to get gunned down for turning agro on Shepard, that Wrex wouldn't be alive either. So, with my favorite squad rollout trumped, I didn't play much of Mass Effect 2, or as FemShep. So, what is my opinion on the matter anyway?

 

[tilmoph]

Two Male sheps. I don't really get why male shep's voice acting is seen as so bad. It's not the greatest VA I've ever heard, but you'd swear the man was just farting into the microphone for all his lines, based on how much negativity he gets.

I have a female shep, as sticking with my usual "3rd playthrough do all the stuff you didn't the first two times", which also means she's full renegade, no romance, and tech based (In theory; In practise, pistols rule the day with her). The female VA is pretty good with renegade, I'll give her that, but I just don't like her paragon voice as much. It's not bad, but her renegade lines just seem to be delivered better. Then again, I haven't gotten my FemShep out of ME1 yet, so maybe she'll do better in 2.

 

[Windcaler]

I tried playing male shepard but I cant stand the voice actor for him. That said, Ive played female shepard since because Jennifer Hale does a great job with the voice acting. Shes perfect in every situation where male shep IMO doesnt have much range. He can be powerful when he needs to be but he has trouble playing softer scenes

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Male. I did try playing as a female Shepard at one point, but her voice actress... ugh, fucking terrible. So yeah, male.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I played both, but male first... so take whenever you want out of that.
As for who I enjoyed playing more. Well, as Zhukov said Jennifer Hale is one kick-ass actor and you get to romance Garrus. Maleshep on the other hand can romance Tali. So 2-1 for Femshep?

 

[The Madman]

For whatever reason I find Mass Effect more compelling with a female lead. It's not the voice actors or anything, I like both, but it just feels better with femshep.

Maybe it's because sci-fi stories with male leads are a dime a dozen, whereas a badass like Femshep only comes along every once and awhile in fiction, so I tend to like her better since she's more unique.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

For whatever reason I find Mass Effect more compelling with a female lead. It's not the voice actors or anything, I like both, but it just feels better with femshep.

Maybe it's because sci-fi stories with male leads are a dime a dozen, whereas a badass like Femshep only comes along every once and awhile in fiction, so I tend to like her better since she's more unique.

Exactly how I feel. It's more interesting seeing a woman saving the whole galaxy while kicking asses left and right.
This is one of the reasons I liked Ripley and Sarah Connor too.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

well in most "choose your entity" games i try to imprint myself onto it, therefore USUALLY male.

however, in this game, this is how i choose:

paragon----> male shepard, just barely, male shepard > female shepard by just a bit I think in the paragon VA

renegade---> female shepard, female shepard >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> male shepard when it comes to renegade responses, i love jennifer hale and i think she nails the renegade portion of it.

 

[The_Lost_King]

I just hate that you can't make a decent looking Male Shepard. Well, I couldn't anyway.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Both actually, although the first one I played with was a Paragon Male Shep followed by a Male Renegade and then again Paragon but this time as a Female Shep.

 

[Legion]

I have played as both. In Mass Effect 1 and 2 I had one of each "perfected" ready for Mass Effect 3. My male Shepard was a "goody two shoes" Paragon and my Femshep was a Paragade (Mostly good, but with a bad side).

Mass Effect 3 I only played as my FemShep and didn't like the game enough to play it again with my male one.

People keep on talking about how great Jennifer Hale is as a voice actress but to be honest I find she becomes quite grating after a while because she always sounds like she is sighing when she talks, no matter what it is she is saying. Mark Meer unfortunately has the problem of sounding like an action hero, and while that doesn't matter when the dialogue is good, when it is bad it makes it sound ten times more cheesy than it is supposed to.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

I've played as both, but recently, I simply had more fun as my Paragon Engineer Femshep. It helps that she has an N7 Typhoon, and is romancing Garrus. And yes, I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a chicks with big guns. I'm male, so I'm allowed to be weak in at least a few ways.

But, overall, I think both are pretty cool. Some parts just sound better with Mark Meer. And some sound better with Jennifer Hale. They both have their good bits of dialogue, though I think it leans more in Hales favor there.

On the plus side for Manshep though, he can romance Tali. And the Death Mask, my favorite helmet, looks better on Manshep for some reason. On Femshep, it just looks too large.

If you think that's an arbitrary thing to bring up, well, it is. Because I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite. So, I choose the N7 Typhoon.

Spoiler: Because you don't argue with a big fucking machine gun.

Ooooh, baby, come to mama/papa.

 

[CBanana]

All in all, it's a bit surprising that male and female Shepard actually have fairly different personalities.

- Paragon male Shepard is a by the book type that hides his emotions whenever possible.
- Paragon female Shepard is an altruistic, compassionate individual who leads with her passion.
- Renegade male Shepard basically puts the mission before any emotional concerns or empathy.
- Renegade female Shepard is an I don't care what you think type who is incredibly sardonic and often has a bad temper.

I think male Shepard is weaker because the emotion that Hale infuses into the role makes Shepard a more well rounded character. I think Meer's performance works a little better for renegade than paragon though I still prefer Hale's renegade performance as it can often be funnier. To be fair though, I liked Meer's performance quite a bit more in Mass Effect 3 where he starts putting more emphasis on emotion.