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Mass Effect composer Sam Hulick revealed in October that he was ‘re-scoring’ the leaked trailer for Mass Effect: Universe to reflect his own “musical vision” for the game. The original, with an edit of “Quartz” by French 79, is pretty groovy, but now Hulick’s work is done and this may not come as much of a surprise but I think I like his version better.
So here we have it—Mass Effect: Universe – Sam Hulick Edit:
I’m not a music critic but I know what I like, and I really like the Mass Effect soundtracks. There’s a broadly common sound threaded through all three games (I didn’t play Andromeda so I’m just pretending it never happened) but they evolved over the course of the trilogy, too: Hulick told me his music in this trailer is “‘a balancing act between paying homage to the original trilogy and exploring new ground”, but leans most heavily toward Mass Effect 1 and 3.
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“Mass Effect’s earliest tracks were more about raw analog synth blended with orchestral elements, but more subdued and ‘vibey’ for lack of a better word,” Hulick said in a recent chat with PC Gamer. “Mass Effect 2 leaned more into orchestral bombast (as with Jack Wall’s forever-famous ‘Suicide Mission’), and Mass Effect 3 combined the best of both worlds, with plenty of epic, fist-pump-into-the-air orchestral moments, as well as sparse, moody synth-forward tracks like the ones I wrote for Mars.”
Jack Wall, for the record, was lead composer on the original Mass Effect while Hulick served as co-composer; the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack brought back Wall and Hulick and added Jimmy Hinson and David Kates to the lineup, while Mass Effect 3 featured Hulick plus Sascha Dikiciyan, Christopher Lennertz, Clint Mansell, and Cris Velasco.
“I would’ve loved to have actual songs (with lyrics) to elevate the more emotional moments in the game, whatever they might’ve been. Fans loved the ME1 end-credits song by Faunts, so why not bring more of that back?”
Sam Hulick, Mass Effect composer
The passage of time is also a factor in Hulick’s approach to new work on Mass Effect. The Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3 came out in 2013, 13 years ago, and he hasn’t been sitting idle since then. “I used to rely on synth presets, but these days I mostly create my own sounds from scratch, since it’s faster than scrolling through a list of 1,000 premade sounds,” Hulick said. “On top of that, the quality of my music production has definitely improved since 2013! Everything in the trailer re-score should sound more polished, but still feel like it belongs in the Mass Effect universe (no pun intended).”
There are some big stylistic shifts over the course of the trailer, made even more notable by its brevity, which Hulick said are meant to showcase different approaches to ambient, cinematic, and combat music—”paying homage” to the original scores while simultaneously exploring new ground. The fight scene near the end of the teaser, for instance, is where Hulick “let the synthwave side come out,” while the rest of the music is more in keeping with the music of the original trilogy.
Hulick also shared his “pipe dream” for the Mass Effect: Universe soundtrack, had he been hired to compose it: “I would’ve loved to have actual songs (with lyrics) to elevate the more emotional moments in the game, whatever they might’ve been. Fans loved the ME1 end-credits song by Faunts, so why not bring more of that back and include it in the game?”
I think that’s a spectacular idea because he’s absolutely correct, we did love that shit. It hits hard—still one of my favorite game tracks ever.
The interesting (and sad) surprise is that all of this isn’t entirely a flight of fancy. BioWare had reached out to Hulick about working with the studio on an internal demo for a new Mass Effect: No promises beyond that were made and BioWare was clear that it hadn’t begun the process of choosing a composer for the full game, but naturally Hulick said yes to “the amazing opportunity to write and brainstorm with the team on the new musical direction.”
Sadly, it never got further than that: Hulick said he was “just starting to build a sonic palette” when he learned, along with the rest of us, that BioWare was being closed.
“Had I been hired to work on Mass Effect Universe, I’d have liked to see the direction lean more toward heavy analog synth while also introducing elements of synthwave. I don’t think it would’ve been 100% synth, though. To remove all orchestral elements from the Mass Effect world feels like it would really hobble some of the more emotional peaks in the narrative,” Hulic said.
“That’s not to say synthesizer-centric music can’t strike people emotionally, of course. But things like solo piano and orchestral arrangements have been part of the soul of Mass Effect’s score since day one, and without them, I don’t know if the music would feel complete.”
In a separate post on his Patreon, Hulick paid tribute to BioWare and the impact Mass Effect had on his career: “BioWare took a chance on a young, unproven composer—an incredible opportunity that wouldn’t have happened if Jack Wall hadn’t recommended me during their composer search. Working on the first three games helped me not only find my musical voice, but also develop the skills needed to work on major video game projects.”
He also repeated the sentiment he expressed on Bluesky when BioWare’s shutdown was announced: As bad as it is for gamers, it’s much worse for the people who work there. “It goes without saying that while we contractors feel the pain of studios shutting down, no one has been more impacted by this shutdown than the hard-working, kind, talented people at BioWare. Please, if you have connections in the game industry, leverage them to help everyone land on their feet.”
Absolutely heartbroken over the end of an era. I hope all the talented and wonderful folks at BioWare land on their feet and keep working on incredible games. 💔 I loved every minute of working with you on the Mass Effect trilogy.
— @samhulick.com (@samhulick.com.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T21:53:55.550Z
Following the now-confirmed end of Dragon Age in 2025, former BioWare senior writer Sheryl Chee said EA owns the IP, but it can’t own the idea: “DA isn’t dead because it’s yours now.” It’s small consolation, especially coming so soon after BioWare’s closure, but I think the same has to be said about Mass Effect. We may not get more from EA, but there will always be more from us. Happy N7 Day.
