[quote=@Mortarion] But, Mass Effect is a Sci Fi setting, like Fallen said, wouldn't technology have reached a point where it's easy for each soldier to carry a radio? Plus, if you look at the helmet they do seem to have enough space to include a radio in them [/quote] Well, in Mass Effect, you only ever see what Shepard and friends are up to, and all they seem to do is touch their ears and magical Bluetooth Voodoo lets them talk to whoever the hell they want to, up to and including I assume their favorite pizza place. Otherwise, there's still a lot of examples of soldiers in Mass Effect having to shout things out to each other or physically report in. That Palaven moon mission, for instance, had soldiers physically walk up to report in changing field conditions to their commander before he sends you off to fix the comm array, and even Victus ends up shouting to his troops to cover you instead of using any form of radio. In Mass Effect 2, when the Urdnot scout goes missing, they figure it out because he hasn't returned. If he had communications equipment, they'd probably have been kept up to date with what was going on instead of sending Shepard and friends to look for him while they're in the area. There's a bunch of little things like that that kind of give me the impression that while communications are a lot more advanced and widespread, they're hardly universal, and I can't imagine any professional army wouldn't practice old skills just in case of equipment failure. A real life example is there's computers that can calculate artillery adjustments automatically, but soldiers still learn how to use charts and maps and do it all manually.