Mass Effect's Citadel "like Manhattan"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 22 December, 2010

Ripe for thousands of stories, says BioWare.

BioWare's gargantuan science fiction Mass Effect universe was designed from the beginning to provide opportunities to tell spin-off tales in comics and novels – but one area in particular could be ripe for further investigation: the Citadel.

Mass Effect's Citadel is an ancient, gigantic space station that acts as the nexus of the galactic community and the home of the Citadel Council (those guys who wouldn't listen to Commander Shepard at the beginning of the first game).

While Shepard has seen plenty of action on the Citadel in both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, gamers have only caught a glimpse of its gargantuan innards – and that's why BioWare reckons it's a perfect setting for "expanded universe" projects.

"Building the Citadel, for example, it's huge," explained the Mass Effect franchise's executive producer Casey Hudson to Destructoid.

"It's like Manhattan. You could tell thousands of stories there. We have other races and civilisations. There's always more to learn about those characters."

Elcor, please.

Talking more generally on the beginnings of the Mass Effect, Hudson revealed that key to maintaining its appeal through the course of a trilogy and numerous spin-offs is making gamers care about the universe in which it's set.

"We wanted to create something that would be a very expansive setting that people wanted to live in," he said. "If you have a story that's scary and exciting, but outside of that is a universe you want to save, it's worth saving and you'd like to live there if you could, that's much of what we wanted to do with Mass Effect.

"We want a good reason why we can do comics and novels and expanded universe stuff, but in a way that ties in to the main story. We worked on that from the beginning. Where does the main story live and how do we tie in other things?"

However, Hudson insisted Mass Effect remains at its core an "action movie story".

"But first and foremost, we think about this as still, basically, an action movie story. So even though we put a lot of work into the setting that's wrapped around the story, your experience through it is very much like an action adventure movie. The plots and characters work on a high level."

The Mass Effect franchise makes its debut on PlayStation 3 next month with Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 3 is due out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 next year.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Machetazo #1 1 year ago

    Not being Commander Shepard, is something I definitely want from a Mass Effect game. Nice article.

  • smithdown #2 1 year ago

    You could see that the Citadel would be an interesting place to explore, but in ME2 you are very limited on where you can explore. I'd like it to seem like a more organic place too. Interesting article though.

  • RodHull #3 1 year ago

    I thought the article meant that the Citadel was like Woody Allen's Manhattan, full of Jewish angst and neuroses.

  • MrBelmont #4 1 year ago

    The Citadel is ripe for online gameplay, bit like the lobbies for Phantasy Star. Wander round, talk to a few dodgy looking aliens in the corner, team up and ship out!

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #5 1 year ago

    The Citadel is ripe for online gameplay, bit like the lobbies for Phantasy Star. Wander round, talk to a few dodgy looking aliens in the corner, team up and ship out!

    That's a great point. Don't forget the shopping that could be done, too.

  • LazyNinjaUk #6 1 year ago

    I'm going to boil this down to its most basic concept and probably the words used to pitch the idea, "GTA in space".

    That's obviously grossly over simplifying it but it gets the point across, more over I think its a brilliant idea and I'm already excited about the possibilities. I have enjoyed ME 1 and 2 immensely but always felt slightly disappointed that the Citadel didn't feel as epic and sprawling as it should have been.

    Here's hoping they stick with the idea and we see a Mass Effect Citadel game in the not to distant future, with more of an emphasis on making the player's character more unique to them. I'm already excited. ^_^

  • Markitron #7 1 year ago

    As long as ME3 doesnt have multiplayer, I dont care if they make a Mass Effect Kart game

  • ISmoke #8 1 year ago

    Citadel in ME = Amazing I actually loved the place

    Citadel in ME2 = Disappointing. Hardly anywhere to go and it just basically Andersons office and 2 shopping levels!!

  • dagas #9 1 year ago

    As long as they keep up the quality I'm all for spin-offs. Maybe a Quarian dating-sim or an Asari dance game for kinect or a Cooking Mama rip-off called Cooking Matriarch =P

    Mostly though I just want to explore the place and talk to people. An open world Citadel game would be nice sort of like a Fallout 3 from Bioware set in the ME universe.
    Edited by dagas at 22/12/10 @ 10:34

  • mazzl #10 1 year ago

    or... it could act as a more story driven place, political intrigue ... espionage, assasinations.... those kind of things.. there are enough shoot and run games.. a mission could be to get somebody elected for a political possitiion via paragon or renegade means :)
    let's campaign! ;)

    aha dating and dance games included :) but please let's not turn this into fable ;)
    Edited by mazzl at 22/12/10 @ 10:37

  • Perfecto #11 1 year ago

    I think the Thane chracter would create some great possibilities for stealthy splintercell, thief type gameplay. The possibilities are almost endless for what can be done on the citadel.

  • Markusdragon #12 1 year ago

    @RodHull
    Now I can't get the idea of Elcor doing Woody Allen routines out of my head.

    Nasally: C-Sec decides to lob in tear-gas but they don't have tear-gas, Pause for punchline: so several Turians put on the death scene from 'Camille'. Nervous Grin.

  • GamesConnoisseur #13 1 year ago

    Assassin Creed Brotherhood with all the assassinations, politicising and hidden truths all over the mysterious epoch spanning station, is just another of many possibile take.

    MMO, GTA type, Vanquish 3rd person shooter, BioShock (as Caretaker innit?), COD Spectre, Citadelville and so on and on!

  • mkreku #14 1 year ago

    If the Citadel is so big, how come it always felt so small?

  • Stomp224 #15 1 year ago

    Excited yelp: "Elcor please" hell yeah baby! I love those guys!

  • uknortherner2000 #16 1 year ago

    "Raped for thousands of sequels, say Bioware"

  • gillri #17 1 year ago

    ME = best universe created in a game ever

    why dont they bring back the Citadel areas from ME1 and 2 and make a new area and then populate them with new quests and charactesr?

    they have the areas modeled, cant be that hard can it Bioware?

  • cw- #18 1 year ago

    Stupid question... is Mass Effect 1 available for the PS3?

  • DrowJones #19 1 year ago

    I am commander Shepard and this is my favorite Citadel on the Citadel.

  • GamesConnoisseur #20 1 year ago

    cw- no ME1 will unfortunately not be available for PS3 as MS owned exclusivity, BUT BioWare had kindly added special feature in ME2, an interactive graphic novel style WITH choices on key moments. So at the end would be no different to PC/X360 owners with their carry over save game, with term of the information on whether you chosen to save certain person over other or the other way round etc in ME1 story.

    This some felt is a great idea, as ME1 wasnt perfect and compared to ME2, the flaws stands out more.

    This is a good compromise or otherwise like Dead Rising 2, PS3 owners just expected to get on with it, though not too bad as DR2 is self contained.

  • hiddenranbir #21 1 year ago

    Shame the population within the Citadel never moved. Always staying still...always having the same conversation until you did some quest trigger to create the illusion that time passed. Not the Manhattan I'm aware of!

    If the citadel is full of more life in ME3, then great.

  • anomagnus #22 1 year ago

    Bas ed on RodHull, i only need to see one project.

    Mass Effect: Emu in Space.

  • X3Entente #23 1 year ago

    too bad then that it feels static and sterile, with about as much character as a dentists examination table

  • Shinetop #24 1 year ago

    I'm with Mazzl on this. Make some sort of story driven game full of political intrigue, corporate espionage, that sort of thing. Shady men in dark corners of the Wards handing over optical storage disc with dirt on high-ranking officials, Covert 'nighttime' (that is, when the sky hologram is set to display a night scene) raids of some dude's office.... You could create a huge spinoff RPG with a universe that's as big as the main Mass Effect games, and still keep it set only on the Citadel.

  • jstar #25 1 year ago

    If there is one about Mass Effect that I do not care about it is the universe in which it is set. A more bland and tired sci fi background has proven hard for me to find.

  • Hunam #26 1 year ago

    DICE should make a Battlefield: Mass Effect with some levels on the citadel :)

  • tyrant1 #27 1 year ago

    A) Is that why the citadel in ME2 was a crappy shopping mall?

    B) Does "action movie story" mean ME3 is going to continue ME2s method of just continually shoving bland, linear shooting corridors down our necks? Or is that going to be an area that you listen to the fans in ME3, and craft the gameworld so it isnt just "cover filled a to b shooting galleries" for most of the game?

  • Nanocrystal #28 1 year ago

    "Elcor, please."

    Erm... remember BioWare actually listens to public demand, no matter how stupid. That's why ME2 had crappy loading screens and a that terrible planet-scanning minigame. Elcor are fun for five minutes, but clearly we don't want them for an entire game.

  • X3Entente #29 1 year ago

    mass effect 3 could do with some star fox 64 esque missions

  • metalangel #30 1 year ago

    A fifty hour RPG set in the grey innards of the space-borne descendant of The Victoria Centre in Southend?

  • Gastrian #31 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 13:33:58 08-05-2012

  • anamenos #32 1 year ago

    Mass Effect 2 was the best game i played in my life!!! Simply brilliant!!
    Edited by anamenos at 22/12/10 @ 14:53

  • kingmong #33 1 year ago

    moar reporter punching and defenestration !!!!111!

  • NewbieZilla #34 1 year ago

    All alone in the night. The name of the place is Citadel Station.

    Doesn't have as good a ring as another name I could mention. Still though, Mass Effect rocks.

  • intpleeus #35 1 year ago

    I wonder how DLC will be handled for Mass Effect 3. Once the reapers are defeated (as I assume they will be), what will be left to tell in the story of Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy? I suppose Bioware already have their own ideas, but mine would be a series of short stories fleshing out events before, during, and after the events of ME1, ME2, and ME3. Maybe we could play as Saren during his mission with Anderson, or perhaps as Garrus on Omega before Shepard arrives. There are lots of possibilities, and the Citadel could feature strongly.

  • BlinkeredAxis #36 1 year ago

    Getting all excited reading this...I might play ME2 again instead of starting Black Ops :)

  • talideon #37 1 year ago

    @Gastrian That would be so very full of win! If there's any character that's been set up by ME 1 & 2 for a spin off game that could work, it's definitely Garrus.

  • mushroomyakuza #38 1 year ago

    Thane and Garrus could certainly have their own games. Whatever happens, I hope the ME universe lives long after Shephard.

  • Collymilad #39 1 year ago

    Was very disappointed in the total stripping back of the citadel in ME2, get it sorted for 3 plz :p

  • TexMurphy01 #40 1 year ago

    You know what I like about this article? Not very much. You might as well just have the title, "keep the ME press machine alive because new games are coming out soon."