Mass Effect Finally Fixed One Of Its Biggest Wrongs
The "Mass Effect" games have proven to extremely popular through the years — but as with anything popular, there have been plenty of times when fans weren't happy with a thing or two. Now that the trilogy has been re-released in "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition," the developers at BioWare were quick to change and remove certain parts of the original games, including content that just didn't age well. One of those changes includes the design of Tali's unmasked face.
Tali, one of the squad characters present throughout entire trilogy, had a controversial face reveal in "Mass Effect 3" that had players upset for a variety of reasons. In 2012, Kotaku was sent a picture of a stock image side-by-side with Tali's in-game portrait, and discovered that the two were identical. BioWare developers had used a stock image instead of giving Tali her own design, which was a problem for a lot of players who felt there was much more to Tali.
However, "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition" has fixed the problem, finally giving Tali her own unmasked design. Her new design aligns more with her character, leaving her hood and showing her facial features off in what looks like a more natural pose for the character.
Players have been excited about the change. One fan went so far as to say that the change "is enough to make me consider [buying] this game." Another gamer praised BioWare for that "having the guts to reverse a (horrible) design choice."
Her new portrait was well received
As it so happens, the debate over Tali's face has been going on since before fans even got chance to see it. Back in 2013, Matt Rhodes, an Art Director at BioWare who worked on the original "Mass Effect" games, posted concept art for the games on his personal blog. He also commented on several design choices in the game, including Tali's character. According to Rhodes, there was a lengthy debate about actually showing Tali's face in the first place.
Rhodes posed the following questions: "If she looked a little too alien, just a little too repellant, would [players] still feel the same way about her? Or did her personality and your history together trump appearances?" Rhodes also posted several renditions of Tali's portrait that were drawn by various artists at the studio. Considering Rhodes' comments and the alternate designs, it's surprising that the developer decided to use a stock image for her character in the first place.
It's safe to say that most fans are happy with the fact that Tali finally got her own design, rather than a re-used stock image.