“Mass Effect’s guns had to be collapsible so that the player could store several on Shepard’s back. The concepts on top were the weapons the player would have at the beginning of the game, and all have the strong Mass Effect arch. The original guns were chrome, later changed to make them more practical for military use. The guns were all designed with two barrels, mainly for appearance rather than functionality.”
“The four holes on the original assault rifle were for slotting in modifications. This was later altered in favor of color variations but the slots remained in the weapon’s design.”
“Mass Effect 2 has a wide variety of conventional guns, broken down into five classes. There are handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles and sub-machine guns. We decided not to make weapons quite as futuristic in Mass Effect to broaden their appeal, but we still tried to keep the weapons distinct by giving them the iconic Mass Effect dual barrels as often as possible. To create a general sense that the Citadel species were supplied by the same arms companies, everyone except the Collectors and geth and a similar design to their weapons.”
“Mass Effect 2 introduced heavy weapons, as shown above. Each weapon had a unique use in gameplay, and all were designed to be large and bulky to demonstrate their increased firepower.”
“Each weapon variety maintains the iconic style of each group. For example, the N7-specific weapons share the same color scheme as Shepard’s Armor, while the turian rifles share some of the angular features of their ships and architecture.”
“Pictured below are two variations of the sub-machine gun, a popular weapon. The color schemes indicate one was developed for the N7 soldiers and other for Cerberus.”
“We added a customization system for weapons in Mass Effect 3. To show the five different levels of modifications for each weapon, concepts like the one above were created. The weapons’ modifications would include scope, barrel, and muzzle attachments to visually show the affects of upgrades.”
“The pistols above show how their design was informed by the clothing and architecture of the species that developed the weapons. The salarian pistol on the left uses elements from Mordin’s clothing. The middle pistol is quarian, while the one on the right is Cerberus, its design drawn from their color scheme and their armor’s bulk.”
“Above are examples of heavy weapons. The bottom one is a Reaper heavy weapon. Its design inspired by a Reaper’s leg.”
“We created the omni-blade to make melee combat as exciting as gunplay. The blade is similar to the omni-tool from the previous games, but it is not entirely holographic.In Mass Effect 3, the omni-tool uses an ultra-fast fabricator to manufacture a disposable blade almost instantly.”
Bolded that last part because that’s pretty cool.
