The past few weeks I’ve played and completed Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. I’ve extensively completed all three games with their respected DLC Packs, Side Quests, and exploration. Before I get deep into this searching the interest and looking at Reviews for Legendary Edition I found that the complaints were “nit picky” this could be between A.I upscaled textures on characters looking off or one that I personally feel is a unnecessary complaint that being the game’s seemingly binary morality choice system. They felt it would be changed so everything would be clearer like a telltale game or something. I’ll be talking about the morality system at some point, but I actually want to talk about the product first.
Mass Effect 1 got the most change out of the whole compilation. Having a unified Character Creation between all three games, femshep, some locale changes, combat, experience, Mako, and things like visuals and controls. The three things I want to emphasize on is the Visuals, Mako, and Experience.
Firstly with Visuals, all textures have been upscaled and in 4K resolution depending on your platform. While clearer textures are awesome. The unfortunate reality is this is a game from 2007 and it has that classic 2000’s aura with it. This is pretty clear with characters of color such as Anderson where he looks off in the first game due to these textures. The lighting is very nice with things like god rays being added and the game just overall looking pretty and bright, but to circle back to Anderson and Character of color. Under unique lighting they either look purple or really off. I again attribute this to the a.I upscaled textures and the engine. While this issue isn’t damning and shouldn’t take away from the core experience it is there.
Experience/Progression has a complete overhaul with the newly Incorporated Legendary Edition option which changes how XP is given and makes leveling up more accessible changing the level cap from 60-30 to avoid things like NG+. This makes it closer in line with ME2 and ME3 which makes the first game more accessible. While the first game is more RPG heavy compared to the rest in the series it’s a welcome edition.
Mako is still as jarring as every but the controls have been updated. For people who have trouble with these segments speed and momentum matters. Standing still leads to death when fighting a thresher maw.
ME1 I feel is now more accessible than it ever was for people wanting to get into the series, Casey Hudson and his writing/world building is some of my personal favorite in gaming in general and I recommend starting here if you play the Legendary Edition of the Trilogy.
ME2 and ME3 I can’t really say much with since while they have some visual changes things like DLC items have been spread across the various stores in the world, but one thing I liked was unifying the casual clothing between ME2 and ME3 so you can wear the iconic N7 Hoodie in ME2. It’s minor, but it’s a welcome addition to the game. The War Asset meta game in ME3 has been overhauled to attribute the war assets locked in the multiplayer mode of ME3 that isn’t in Legendary Edition so this is the most content heavy experience for the trilogy in general major or minor.
I have to talk about the choice/morality system in this trilogy since people for some reason thought that it would be changed. Firstly one thing I adore with this series is how your playthrough can contrast with your friends. This is due to various little choices and consequences you make across the trilogy. Someone you can kill on ME1 won’t appear later on in the series to give a example. While the major choices aren’t all that fulfilling a lot of choices and outcomes you make in something like ME2 can either save or kill someone in ME3. Sometimes paragon options can lead to someone’s death sometimes renegade can lead to saving someone. I won’t go into details here because spoilers, but these details and the way your save transfer tracks it all is nothing, but impressive for a trilogy in the 360 era of gaming.
I recommend picking up Legendary Edition if it interests you since it’s the most complete and modern way to play the whole series dlc included.