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In the original Mass Effect 3, start a new game, select Male or Female, then choose Role-Playing or Story mode to reach Shepard’s creation screens. Action mode skips character creation. The documented creator has no separate voice selector: the official credits identify Mark Meer as male Shepard and Jennifer Hale as female Shepard.

How to create or customize Shepard in the original Mass Effect 3

  1. From New Game, choose Male or Female to create a Shepard. To continue a completed Mass Effect 2 career, choose Import ME2 Character. The game also offers Import ME3 Character after you have completed Mass Effect 3.

  2. Choose Role-Playing or Story to enter the creation screens. Action mode skips them and proceeds into the game. The manual says combat difficulty and conversation mode can be adjusted in Options after starting.

  3. Choose or customize the fields presented: first name, appearance, military class, personal history, service history, and combat losses. The manual names Appearance as a category but does not enumerate particular sliders, hairstyles, facial features, or presets, so the available appearance controls should not be assumed to be identical across editions or platforms.

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    Mass Effect Trilogy - Playstation 3 (Renewed)
    • Over 75 hours of story content, plus Mass Effect 3's critically acclaimed multiplayer mode
    • Create and customize your own character with his or her appearance and skills, then play your Commander Shepard through all three Mass Effect games
    • Experience an amazingly rich and detailed universe where your decisions have profound consequences on the action and the outcome
    • Build a personalized arsenal with powerful weapons complete with their own upgrades and modifications
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  4. At Review, confirm your choices. Until confirmation, you can return to earlier screens and revise them.

When importing a Mass Effect 2 character, the manual says the character’s level and story-impacting decisions carry forward.

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  • IMMERSIVE STORY: Dive into the Mass Effect universe as Commander Shepard, leading a squad through a Cerberus cruiser to unveil secrets before a massive storm hits Hagalaz.
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Can you choose Shepard’s voice separately?

No separate voice choice is documented in the original game’s creation flow. You choose Male or Female, and the official materials identify Mark Meer with male Shepard and Jennifer Hale with female Shepard. That means the documented options pair the gender selection with the corresponding Shepard performance; they do not describe a control for swapping voices independently.

For a choice between the two, consider the performance and appearance you prefer. The cited official sources identify the actors but do not establish that one performance is objectively better.

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Mass Effect 3
  • Battle as Commander Shepard on many worlds across the galaxy as you unite the ultimate force to take back the Earth before it's too late
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  • Allows the option to import decisions from both of the previous games and supports optional use of the Kinect Sensor for Xbox 360
  • Experience a new emphasis on melee combat, movement and an improved cover system

Original Mass Effect 3 creator vs. Legendary Edition

Do not assume the original release’s creator and Mass Effect Legendary Edition offer identical appearance options. EA says the Legendary Edition unified Shepard customization across the trilogy and added options including skin tones and hairstyles. EA’s Mass Effect team described the update this way: “For example, we’ve unified Shepard’s customization options in the character creator and even added some new options, like additional skin tones and hairstyles.”

EA also says Legendary Edition supports a creator code across all three games, so players can keep an appearance consistent or change it at the start of each game. In that edition, the Mass Effect 3 FemShep is the default female option throughout the trilogy, while the original FemShep design remains available as a preset. These are Legendary Edition details, not a description of the original 2012 release.

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