Mass Effect/Shout Out: Difference between revisions

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== Series ==

* [http://www.cerberusdailynews.com/?p=100 Cerberus Daily News] on 4/01/2185 (April Fool's Day) has an interesting article about the destruction of a planet...with a [[Superman|single infant survivor]].

** Picked up by a starship named Kent no less.

** His native atmosphere is "''65% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, and 15% krypton''".

** And then you have the planet's name, DC1938.

* Then there are the Blue Suns Mercenary Band, which is a reference to either the "Blue Suns" of ''Firefly'' or "Black Sun" of ''[[Star Wars]]''. Or both.

* The quarians with their rag-tag, fugitive fleet fleeing the geth genocide are very close analogues to ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''.

* The Spectres' unlimited authority is very much like a [[Lensman]]'s.

** There are a lot of similarities to [[Frederik Pohl]]'s [[Heechee Saga]]. The parallels are numerous. {{spoiler|In ''Mass Effect'', the Protheans fill in for the Heechee as precursors who have mysteriously disappeared, and like the Heechee, the Protheans have also retreated to the Galactic Core, albeit under different circumstances, and the mass relays function essentially the same way as the Heechee ships. Similarly, the Assassins/Foe fill in for the Reapers as the hive minds that live outside the galaxy and from time to time eradicate all sentient organic life.}} Additionally, the hanar may be modeled in part after the Sailship People, who were also tentacled and sheltered drell-like refugees.

*** In fact, there's an entire ''cluster'' of such references - the ''Armstrong'' cluster which has stars named ''Gagarin'' and ''Tereshkova'', amongst other things.

* Lot of elements from the story are similar to the plot in [[Star Control|Star Control 3]].

** The Rachni (and their overall story) are a damn near perfect [[Expy]] {{spoiler|of the buggers from ''[[Ender's Game]]''.}}

** The Rachni are also expies of the Arachnid alien species from Starship Troopers. The mission chain "UNC: Listening Post Alpha", "UNC: Listening Post Theta", and "UNC: Depot Sigma-23" are based off scenes from the movie, even including a character named Elena Flores as a shout out to Isabel 'Dizzy' Flores from the movie.

* There is a possibility that whoever designed the turians read [[Salt]] by [[Adam Roberts]], given that it featured a ship named the Senaar where "they live by the hierarchy" which had a past captain named "Tyrian, or Turian".

* Krogan are large hunchbacked aliens with red eyes and aggressive tendencies. The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDmTW9QeGG0 Grendlers] from Earth 2 are large hunchbacked aliens with red eyes and aggressive tendencies.

 

== Mass Effect 1 ==

* One side world, Junthor, has references to [[Forbidden Planet|monsters from the id]] and Percy Bysshe Shelly's "Ozymandias".

** In a similar vein, a conversation between Shepard and Kaidan {{spoiler|regarding the Reapers}} has this gem:

'''Kaidan:''' With all due respect, sir, I think we're going to need a bigger boot. }}

* There are several Kowloon class freighters, which is probably a reference to [[Snow Crash]].

* The Feros mission is another big ''[[Aliens]]'' shoutout. Thankfully, you get to kill the Burke character yourself.

** Zhu's Hope is a reference to [[Alien|Hadley's Hope]].

* There's also a sidequest where you help a bunch of stranded marines against hordes of rachni inspired by the battle at Whiskey Outpost in Starship Troopers. Their commanding officer is Lt. Elena Flores, a shout out to Lt. Isabel 'Dizzy' Flores from the movie.

* One of the last things you do on your way to defeating the [[Big Bad]] is take your vehicle through a [[Star Wars|"Trench Run"]]. (Yes, that's what the map screen calls it.)

* In one sidequest, you find a human distress beacon which turns into a geth ambush. Ashley comments [[Star Wars|"I've got a bad feeling about this..."]] Once they attack, she yells "It's a trap!"

** It gets better with other party members... Wrex looks a lot more Ackbar-like than Ashley could ever ''not'' hope to.

* In the Hydra Cluster, you're sent to apprehend a Major Kyle who went off the deep end and has styled himself Father Kyle for his commune of biotics. While there's neither smell of napalm in the morning nor a termination with extreme prejudice (at least not if you resolve the situation peacefully), [[Apocalypse Now|the reference is clear.]]

'''Krogan''': Exhilarating, isn't it? }}

* Compare the opening of [[Top Gun]] <ref>On March 3, 1969 the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots. Its purpose was to teach the lost art or aerial combat and to insure that the handful of men who graduated were the best fighter pilots in the world. They succeeded. Today, the Navy calls it Fighter Weapons School. The flyers call it... TOP GUN</ref> to the opening text of [[Mass Effect]] <ref>In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time. They called it the greatest discovery in human history. The civilizations of the galaxy call it... MASS EFFECT</ref>

* When you successfully re-activate the Mira Core for the Peak 15 facilities on Noveria, the Mira V.I.'s initial query is clearly modeled after the Microsoft Office Assistant "Clippy the Paper Clip". Sheperd's Renegade response even lampshades this:

'''Renegade response:''' Crap, a pop-up. }}

* In yet another [[Alien]] shout out, the planet Maji has an odd skull that bears more than a bit of resemblance to an alien queen. And if that's not enough of a shout out, Maji happens to be used as a big game preserve where vicious animals are brought to [[Alien vs. Predator|be hunted for sport]], and the skull indeed shows signs of weapons fire.

* [[Stargate]] shoutouts are a-plenty in this game. Most notably would have to be the Prothean artifact imprinting partial knowledge in Shepherd's brain, and despite being the one unlikely human who was genetically capable of handling it, he still has to seek out the help of the advanced race who created the artifact to sort out his mind again. This same plot led to Shepherd discovering the fate of the Protheans and saving the galaxy several times over and led O'neill to discovering the asgard and saving the galaxy several times over.

* "[[Ghostbusters|Okay, important safety tip]]: don't [[Crossing the Streams|press the big red buttons]]."

* If Shepard brings Ashley and Kaiden down to the Citadel wards it's possible that, after one of them notes a ditincr anti-human sentiment, Shep will give a giant shout out to old sci-fi:

::Which the opposite gendered character will have snarky remark about

'''Kaidan''': When you put it that way, there's no reason they wouldn't like you. I mean us. Humans. Ma'am. }}

 

== Mass Effect 2 ==

** If you stand by Joker at the bridge, in addition to saying a ton of funny lines, he'll at one point say:

** Which is itself a reference to The Hunt for Red October. (More specifically, it could be from ''Firefly'', which was referencing Red October, which was using an actual submarine tactic - take your pick.)

** While Zaeed has several obvious shout outs to Firefly, his character is a subtle shout out to another series. A morally questionable mercenary who founded an organisation only to be betrayed by his partner(s)? Who is missing an eye (Zaeed's current eye is a cybernetic replacement)? [[Metal Gear Solid|I wonder what other series has a character like that, huh?]]

* Speaking of ''Firefly'', The Collectors totally attack (New) Canton.

** The Collector Cruiser's [[Leitmotif]] is an homage to the Reaver ship theme as well.

* One of Male Shepard's default casual outfits is [[Knights of the Old Republic|Canderous Ordo's]] default outfit.

** Side note: Krogan have four testicles, so when they someone's got a quad it is the human equivalent of saying someone's got a pair. A quint would be the rare krogan who has five.

* One of the quarian Admirals is from a ship named Qwib-Qwib. This just happens to be the name of the lone anti-Berserker sentient machine in the [[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]] universe. Bonus points in that the Berserkers are eerily similar to the Reapers in some ways.

** And it looks at you knowingly with a smile.

** There's also a heavy pistol called the Carnifex [[Hand Cannon]].

*** ...you guys know the word means "butcher" in [[Gratuitous Latin|Latin]], right?<ref>Additionally, the term appears in a second place in 40K: it's also the name of the gauntlet-mounted surgery kit Space Marine Apothecaries wear. *Also you know,the giant bio-tank Tyranid....</ref>

** This is particularly genius, because it's also referencing the [[Executive Meddling]] that caused the machines' use for humans in [[The Matrix]] to be changed from using human brains for distributed computing to power sources.

** The atmosphere of the gas giant Anjea (Amada system, Omega Nebula, available with the Normandy Crash Site DLC) has "large numbers of hollow, unpowered objects with dimensions 3.14 by 12.56 by 28.26 meters circulating in the equatorial cloud bands". In other words, pi by 4 times pi by 9 times pi, matching the 1:4:9 dimensions of the Monoliths.

* There's a scene in a bar where you can get Shepard to start drinking. It's not exactly identified what it is Shep's drinking.

* The game merchant on the Citadel will mention a game called '''[[Grand Theft Auto|G]]'''[[Grand Theft Auto|rim]] '''[[Grand Theft Auto|T]]'''[[Grand Theft Auto|erminus]] '''[[Grand Theft Auto|A]]'''[[Grand Theft Auto|lliance]], that is apparently pretty controversial ("So what if you can capture and beat slaves? It's just a game!")

* On Tuchanka, a derelict building bearing a strong resemblance to the [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ryugyong_Hotel Ryugyong Hotel] can be seen in the distant background.

* Several of the wrecked spaceships seen in the second game seem to be inspired by art from the old Terran Trade Authority books, particularly ''Space Wreck: Ghost Ships and Derelicts of Space''.

* Legion is responsible for many of the game's more obscure shout outs:

** Legion says that the geth {{spoiler|(or, at least, the heretic geth)}} do not share our [[Terminator|pity, remorse or fear.]]

** During his loyalty quest, if you {{spoiler|choose to rewrite the geth heretics}}, he notes that it requires exactly [[Back to The Future|1.21 petawatts]] of electricity to do so.

** Legion has many similarities to [[Babylon 5|Kosh and the Vorlons]], the eye, the ethereal speech, but most notably:

'''Legion:''' We are all geth. }}

** He also, at one point, answers an "A or B" question "[[Mathematician's Answer|yes]]", a trademark Kosh response.

** ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' tells us that Legion is an avid gamer; he plays ''[[World of Warcraft|Galaxy of Fantasy]]'' and ''Grim Terminus Alliance'' mentioned above, and has achievements for completing a playthrough without killing slaves as well as killing one hundred quarians. He also plays ''[[Modern Warfare|N7 Call of Honor]]: [[Medal of Honor|Medal Of Duty]]'' and has over 200,000 sniper-rifle kills, [[Player Preferred Pattern|but only three shotgun kills and no melee kills]].

* If you convince the asari on Illium to date the krogan, you'll see them later on Tuchanka. After the asari claims that the planet is too dusty, the krogan notes that it "[[Calvin and Hobbes|builds character]]."

* The Tupari vending machine in the Citadel will occasionally say: "Tupari: it will bring your ancestors back from the grave." This is in reference to a [[Bite the Wax Tadpole|marketing campaign]] Pepsi ran in China. See the [http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/ancestor.asp Snopes.com] entry for details.

** Since we don't have a page for that yet, to elaborate: R.U.R., written by Karel Čapek, coined the term 'robot'. It's a thinly-veiled Communist allegory where the robots stage a [[Robot War|mass uprising]].

** This troper just realized another one while looking at this entry: '''H'''ahne-'''K'''edar has a [[Knights of the Old Republic|facility for producing mechs that Shepherd must shut down]].

* Shepard can listen to the ramblings of a racist batarian "Mad Prophet" on Omega who brings to mind a racist human prophet from another [[Knights of the Old Republic|BioWare project.]]

* Kasumi's outfit bears a striking resemblance to Visas Marr from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2''.

** More importantly, however, it's eerily similar to the thief model from the Infinity Engine.

* Among the valuable artifacts locked in Donovan Hock's vault is a statue of an Ogre from ''[[Dragon Age]]''.

* Morinth is smuggled aboard the ''Demeter'', the name of the ship that ferried [[Dracula]] to England.

** An Ardat-Yakshi's power to seduce, entrance, and slowly drain the life out of their victims is further reference to Dracula and vampire legends.

** Also, Yakshi is a class of benevolent nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain mythology. This troper doesn't really know where to go from here, but it sure as hell isn't just a coincidence.

* The star cluster in which you find the IFF is named Hawking Eta. It contains the star systems Chandrasekhar and Schwartzschild. That's right, an astrophysics Shout Out.

* The M-451 Flamethrower. What burns at [[Fahrenheit 451]]?

** [[Critical Research Failure|Not books]]; they burn at 451 '''Celsius'''

* The planet where the Overlord DLC mission is set has skies full of [[Dragon Age|dragons]].

* Listening to Khalisah al-Jilani after punching her, she has a line quite similar to Bart Sibrel after Buzz Aldrin punched him for calling him a liar (and other things).

** On a related note, in one of the Collector missions, the Commander is trapped in a room with locked doors. EDI hacks one of the doors so you can proceed, mentioning "[[A New Hope|Firewall 3217]]" while doing so.

** The Krogan trucks on Tuchanka look a lot like the vehicle the finds the derelict space ship in ''Aliens''.

* At the end of the game, you can see what the Collectors did with the captured humans. {{spoiler|Turn them into an orange liquid that is used to create a single giant lifeform.}} This is amazingly similar to the fate of humanity in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''.

** There are also other hints throughout the games that would make {{spoiler|[[Assimilation Plot|Instrumentality]]}} one possible explanation for the creation of the first Reaper.

* EDI's name {{spoiler|and eventual upgrade in personality, along with style of speech and piloting maneuvers,}} is a reference to ''[[Stealth]]''.

* On the prison ship Purgatory, you see one prisoner being beaten up. If you talk to the guy in the cell next to him, he'll reveal that his name is [[Double Dragon|Bimmy]].

* The car chase itself is very reminiscent of ''[[Attack of the Clones]]''.

** Or maybe [[The Fifth Element]], you're even in a taxi!

* Slightly obscure one: apparently the planet Siano wandered to its current location from another system, and is home to an abandoned base on one side and a nuclear waste dump on the other. Looks like we found out where [[Space: 1999|Moonbase Alpha]] finally ended up.

* Jack's entire existence seems to be one big reference to [[The Chronicles of Riddick]].

** Her name and bald-shaven nature are exactly similar to Jack, the girl who latches onto Riddick in the film series. Additionally, both are broken out of their equivalents of a mercenary-controlled [[The Alcatraz|supermax prison]] by a suitably [[Badass]] figure who they come to trust.

*** And similar to [[Demolition Man|another futuristic prison we have seen.]]

**** A prison where a protagonist is forced into cryo-storage in the future? [[Minority Report|It'll never catch on.]]

** On her loyalty mission, you find a room with a chair that looks suspiciously like the one in Dollhouse, with Jack saying "This is a bad place"

** Not to mention that Jack from ''[[Pitch Black]]'' was assumed to be male for the majority of the movie, and until Shepard & Co. see Jack in her prison, they all assume her to be male as well.

* On Illium there is one radio broadcast that can easily be mistaken for one of the frequent news broadcasts, but turns out to be a commercial for a new blockbuster movie:

''"[[Dirty Harry|This one has forgotten whether his heat sink is over capacity. He wonders if this criminal scum considers itself fortunate.]]"'' }}

* Omega bears a particularly striking resemblance to [[Blade Runner|Los Angeles in 2019]].

* The ship "Qwib-Qwib" is apparently a reference to the Fred Saberhagen ''Berserker'' novels, which were about rampaging robots trying to wipe out all life in the galaxy (sound familiar?)

* When scanning the planet Shasu, one can find the [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/forever-alone "Forever Alone" meme face] on the planet's surface, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KWm87FDo_U as seen here].

* The dog-like mech's name is [[Norse Mythology|FENRIS]].

** The human-like one is LOKI.

** The enormous sub-boss level mechs are YMIR. For those that don't know their Norse mythology, Ymir was the father of the jötnar, the chaos-loving giants.

* Avina on the Citadel remarks that asari futurists believe poverty will not be eliminated until the production of cornucopia technology that enables the user to create anything they desire. This is exactly like Gene Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek, where the availability of replicators has eliminated the need for currency and eliminated poverty on Earth, creating an idealistic future for humans.

* On the assignment "MSV [[Strontium Dog|Strontium Mule]]", the payload you discover at the end is [[Pulp Fiction|neither seen nor directly explained but casts a golden glow from its container.]]

* The "Reave" ability itself struck me as this. A power that lets you drink your enemies' life force from afar? [[Legacy of Kain|Now where have I seen that before?]]

** As well, Morinth is an intensely sexual blue-skinned babe with a knack for 'herbs' and {{spoiler|killing her lovers}}, making her remarkably similar to Farscape's Zhaan, as well. The shoutout feels complete each time an asari makes a remark to The Goddess.

* Thane's loyalty mission is a big shout-out to [[Harry Chapin]]'s song "Cat's in The Cradle" including the father, Thane, [[When You Coming Home, Dad?|never being around for his son]], Kolyat, and Kolyat following in his father's footsteps. To make the shout-out even more blatant, the achievement for completing the mission is called "Cat's in The Cradle."

* The krogan call their huge, gun-laden trucks "Tomkahs". Probably a lawyer-friendly reference to [[Tonka Tough|Tonka toy trucks]].

* A soldier is killed when his ship is ambushed and destroyed by an enemy cruiser, and is brought back to life by a disavowed black ops organization as a hard-to-kill cyborg via a project named for Lazarus. Just like in the early ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode ''A Spider In The Web.''

* Samara's loyalty quest on Omega, with Nef. Including the little video diary, seems to be an almost direct shout out to Lost In Space, given the similarity to Penny.

 

== Mass Effect 3 ==

* Kai Leng acts very like [[Metal Gear Solid|another cyborg ninja.]]

* Between the flame throwers, the need for flashlights to navigate dark corridors and the creepy eggs that unleash insectoid horrors on anyone who gets too close, the mission on Utukku is one big tribute to [[Alien]]. (If you kill them both times, Joker even starts to comment that maybe they should nuke the planet, because it's the only way to be sure.)

* Brutes, the krogan/turian husks, behave almost exactly like ogres in the [[Dragon Age]] games.

** And Banshees have more than a passing similarity in behaviour to the Witch in [[Left 4 Dead]]

*** They also look a **lot** like the true form of Sil from [[Species]]

* A sidequest involves Shepard [[Jurassic Park|finding a kakliosaur skull preserved in amber and suggesting a salarian scientist clone its DNA to produce living kakliosaurs.]] So the krogan can ''ride them into battle'' against the Reapers.

* If you've romanced Liara all the way through, her last kiss with Shepard ends with them silhouetted in each other's arms as a bright light on the horizon envelops them, looking a lot like one of the dream sequences from ''[[Watchmen]]''.

* As anyone familiar with [[Logan's Run]] will know, {{spoiler|there is no sanctuary.}}

* When you invite Traynor up to your cabin for chess and she challenges you, the Paragon response on the conversation wheel is, "[[Star Wars|I have a bad feeling...]]" The line Shepard actually says is, "[[Memetic Mutation|This is a trap, isn't it?]]"

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvaQDxhm_0U&feature=g-u-u&context=G204fe7eFUAAAAAAAAAA Fight like a Krogan!] by [[Miracle of Sound]].

* While trying to sneak past some Geth using their stealth system, Joker comments the only way the Geth could detect them was if they started [[The Hunt for Red October|singing the Russian national anthem]].

* During the mission to rescue the ex-Cerberus scientists led by Dr. Brynn Cole, the evacuation scenes resemble the opening of the [[The Empire Strikes Back|Battle of Hoth]], where surface-to-air guns clear a path for transports. Some of the lines are exactly the same, too.

* After the raid on the Citadel [[Seth Green|Joker]] will comment how he used to like Cerberus, when they were vigilantes and [[Angel|helping the helpless.]]

 

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