by Alex Henderson, Contributing Writer
Reviewed on Xbox One and PC
Nearly a decade after the release of Mass Effect 3, which is the span of the entire console generation, Mass Effect Legendary Edition allows old players of the beloved series an opportunity to revisit the classic they fell in love with many years ago, while also giving new players the opportunity to experience it. This is something fans, including myself, have been wanting for many years. So being that these are updated versions of previously released games, this review will focus more on how it performs overall and will cover what developer Bioware has improved through each title.
Mass Effect
The first thing I want dive right into is the original Mass Effect. I’d probably say that out of all three, this is the game that has had the most improvements. The heads-up display is more of an updated design that resembles what would later be used in Mass Effect 2 and 3, while being distinct enough that it represents the first game. This time, the character creator is the same one used throughout all three games, so any customization options present in Mass Effect 3‘s character creator can now be found in Mass Effect.
Another nice addition is that the class system no longer only allows you to be stuck with only one type of weapon. Back in the original, if you chose a specific class, it was almost useless to use any other type of gun because the game wouldn’t let you aim properly. Now all weapons can be used no matter which class you choose. The Mako is something that’s had a huge improvement, adding a boost feature that makes traveling across planets take up less time. The only qualm I have there is that it still has the issue where depending on where the camera is located, that’s the direction you will take off in. This can be really annoying in close quarters, but that’s really my only complaint with it.
Due to how much faster the current consoles are and depending on how fast your PC is, the long loading times hidden by taking the elevators in the citadel are almost non-existent. It loads so fast that as soon as you get in you have the option to skip the ride completely. To sum up the improvements here, I think the Legendary Edition of the first Mass Effect is a great improvement and almost gets rid of many of the issues fans have had with the original game for many years. Now let’s move on to Mass Effect 2.
Mass Effect 2
A lot of the same graphics-related improvements made from the first game are here for Mass Effect 2 and feature better textures, due to it being a game that isn’t as old as the previous. An issue that is less common this time around is lip syncing on character animations. At the time of Mass Effect, we were still in that phase where people never noticed that upper lips don’t move as much as you think, and that slight tweak makes scenes where characters are speaking feel not as distracting.
Something I’m glad that has been improved upon are the lowered camera angles on characters like Miranda. They felt a little inappropriate ,even for the time, and were completely uncalled for. It’s just nice to see Bioware make changes to things that came across as unnecessary.
Additional downloadable content released back in the day is also pre-packaged in and completely free. This is nice, but unfortunately, this is the part where some of my complaints come in. So the DLC released for Mass Effect 2 is here almost from the start. That should be a positive, but because the game doesn’t tell you if the mission you are about to start is additional content, this can bring the pacing down when trying to focus on the main story. Hopefully there’s an update for this issue soon but for now it’s up to researching the wiki guides.
Mass Effect 3
Now onto the most controversial entry into the beloved trilogy, Mass Effect 3. The graphics are obviously going to look the best here out of all three since this is the latest release. But overall, it looks gorgeous, even for today, except for one thing. The character of Kaiden Alenko looks terrible and almost from a completely different version of the game. I’m not sure why his character model is so outdated compared to everyone else, but hopefully this gets adjusted in a future update. Aside from this, almost everything looks perfectly fine.
A huge improvement is one that fixes the game’s controversial ending. There will be no spoilers here, so don’t fear. It’s just something I think is important to mention, because when the game originally released in 2012, a lot of fans were disappointed with how it ended. This wasn’t because it felt like a terrible ending, but because it felt like the game itself was missing a lot of details within the last 30 minutes of its ending, leaving you with so many questions that would likely never be answered due to it being the finale. A few months later, Bioware released a DLC titled “Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut.” This gave an answer to so many questions fans had and finally gave the game the proper ending that it didn’t get during it’s rushed production. Now Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition has these scenes included, no matter which ending you get.
Finally, I just want to mention that the issue I had with Mass Effect 2 where the DLC is already installed and available from the start is here as well. This time, it’s almost worse because these are both great missions, but only feel satisfying if you’ve either finished the game or have a friend tell you the perfect time to begin each one, depending on where you are in the story so far.
Final Verdict
Before I give my final grade, I just want to say that at the end of the day, this is a great remaster. Even though I had complaints about how some of the DLC content is packaged in, these games are almost as good as they were when they first released years ago, and it’s amazing that they’ve aged as well as they have. It’s nice for this series to finally get an update for newer hardware and now that its been almost a decade since the trilogy completed, I can’t wait for new audiences to discover this series for the first time. I’d say you owe it to yourself to check out this series if you love science fiction. I have a hard time believing you’ll regret it.
Grade: A-