In a few months, BioWare and EA will launchMass Effect: Legendary Edition, the highly-anticipated remaster of the original threeMass Effectgames, all bundled together in one cohesive package. BioWare is making changes to all three games in the trilogy to bring them up to modern standards, though the game that is getting the most changes is quite easily the originalMass Effectgame.
Since the originalMass Effectis older, this makes sense. And while there will be changes made to the other games, likeMass Effect 3’s extended endingbeing baked into the experience instead of being a separate thing, fans are going to notice the most changes in the original game when they revisit it later this year.
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It’s possible that BioWare has yet to reveal all the changes it’s made toMass Effect 1inMass Effect: Legendary Edition, but here are all the big changes that the studio has confirmed so far.
Combat Changes
There were some combat alterations between theoriginalMass Effectand its sequels, butMass Effect: Legendary Editionworks to give the games a more unified feel. This will include improved aiming in the originalMass Effectgame, as well as all three games in the series using a single, dedicated button for melee attacks. Players will also notice that aiming down the sights in the originalMass Effectis a lot more reliable inMass Effect: Legendary Edition.
AI companions have also been improved for the firstMass Effectgame inMass Effect: Legendary Edition. As some may recall, the AI in the originalMass Effectsometimes didn’t respond all that well to commands and would occasionally make stupid decisions that got themselves killed. That shouldn’t be nearly as much of a problem inMass Effect: Legendary Edition. However, enemy AI is also improved inMass Effect: Legendary Edition, so fans should keep that in mind as well.
Other combat improvements inMass Effect: Legendary Editionhave not been discussed in great detail, but have been vaguely mentioned by BioWare. Players should be able to experience better boss battles and they should also notice a better first aid cooldown inLegendary Editionwhen compared to the first game, though it’s unclear exactly what that means at the time of this writing.
One of the more frustrating aspects of the originalMass Effectgame was its unreliable auto save. One wrong move in combat could mean repeating a huge chunk of the game, butMass Effect: Legendary Editionmakes it so the game auto saves more frequently, which should go a long way in saving players' some headaches.
New Game+
A key element of the originalMass Effectgame was the need to go back through in New Game+ if players really wanted to experience everything. There were some actions in the story that were nearly impossible to take unless players were on their second playthrough and had enough XP to purchase the skills required to take those actions. WhileMass Effectshould still have the New Game+ option,BioWare has changed it so players don’t need to use New Game+if they want to reach the level cap and experience everything properly the first time around.
Thanks to the XP re-balancing in theMass Effect: Legendary EditionofMass Effect 1, players will now be able to hit the level 60 cap without going back through the entire game. In turn, this will allow players tocarry over their saves immediately fromMass Effect 1toMass Effect 2without having to play through the first game multiple times to get the choices and squadmates that they want for their story.
Mako
The originalMass Effectgame earned critical acclaim at the time of its release, but many critics took issue with one element in particular. Very few people were impressed with the Mako vehicle inMass Effect 1, often complaining about its cumbersome controls. A drivable Mako wasn’t featured inMass Effect 2at all, so it seems as though BioWare was well aware of how many people felt about the machine.
Instead of removing theMako fromMass Effect 1, BioWare has instead decided to improve it. Those playingMass Effect: Legendary Editionshould discover a version of the Mako vehicle that is significantly easier to control than the one in the originalMass Effectgame from 2007.
Graphics
Players will also notice aMass EffectMako that has a lot more detail to it and generally looks way better than the one from 2007. One of the biggest and most obvious improvements toMass EffectinMass Effect: Legendary Editionwill be the upgraded visuals.Mass Effect: Legendary Editionmaintains a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second when playing on Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, PS4 Pro, and PS5, and the performance shouldn’t be too shabby on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles either.
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Mass Effect 1graphics comparisonsshow just how far the game has come in theLegendary Editionwhen compared to its original release. Character models have a lot more detail to them, as do the game worlds, weapons, and effects. The lighting has also been improved massively, resulting in a game that is far superior to the original in terms of graphics.
Elevator Music
Graphical improvements will be present in all threeMass Effectgames, but another improvement is exclusive toMass Effect 1. As some may recall,Mass Effect 1featured excessive elevator rides, which were really clever ways for BioWare to hide the game loading the next area. To make these elevator rides somewhat less boring, though, BioWare included audio clips that players could listen to on the elevators that provided some extra context and helped to flesh out the story a bit more.
Losing these audio clips would be a shame, but making players stand in elevators for long periods of time is also silly. So BioWare has compromised bykeepingMass Effect 1’s elevator sequences in the game, but speeding them up enough so that they will no longer slow the pacing down to a crawl.
Next-Generation Enhancements
There isno proper PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X version ofMass Effect: Legendary Edition. While the game is playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X thanks to those consoles being backward compatible, it won’t be able to take full advantage of the new consoles. That being said,Mass Effect: Legendary Editionwill still havesomeimprovements when playing the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X, most noticeably through even faster load times when compared to playing the game on other systems.
DLC
BioWare supported the firstMass Effectgame after its launch with DLC, and almost all of that DLC will be included inMass Effect: Legendary Editionfrom the get-go. Unfortunately, one piece ofMass Effect 1DLC won’t be in theLegendary Edition. Due to the original code for it no longer being available,Mass Effect 1’s Pinnacle Station DLCwill not be featured inMass Effect: Legendary Edition. So while most of theMass Effect 1changes in theLegendary Editionseem like good things, some of the changes are not without their drawbacks.
United Front
In an effort for the original threeMass Effectgames to be more unified, BioWare has created a new HUD forMass Effect 1, and has implemented a universal character creator. What this means is that those playingMass Effect 1will have a lot more options when it comes to creatingtheir version of Commander Shepardthan they did in the original version of the game.
Mass Effect: Legendary Editionlaunches May 14 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
