HomeFeatures
Look, we all already know if we’re getting the Mass Effect Legendary EditionWhat am I even doing here?
What am I even doing here?
I loveMass Effect. I am the BioWare liker. Give me an RPG with a weird setting and some non-humans to be friends with and possibly smooch, and I’ll have a hell of a time. When people ask “what is your favourite game?” (which used to genuinely be on the interview set questions for Gamestation when I worked there) I usually say “Mass Effect 2, but with the context of having first played Mass Effect.”
Mass Effect Legendary Edition – Official Remastered Comparison Trailer (4K)Watch on YouTube
Mass Effect Legendary Edition – Official Remastered Comparison Trailer (4K)
There is a little bit more I can say, I guess, that might sway people who are on the fence. No remaster of Mass Effect could ever be properly bad, because it’s a remaster of Mass Effect. Your starting premise is too good. It’s like ordering a pizza: whatever the specific variables involved in the pizza, you still get to eat a motherfucking pizza.
And now it has, like, nicer textures and lighting and that. Alien kisses in better definition. ME1 also has controls and UI more in line with the other two games, so there’s way less confusion going from it straight into the other games. The Mako space-ATV no longer handles like you’re doing the commute in a rocket-propelled flipflop. There are smaller changes like inventory size being bigger that just make it feel a bit less early-00s to play.
If you’ve never played Mass Effect before, rest assured that this guy definitely does fine.
But on the other hand, the PC version doesn’t haveany terribly exciting settingsfor those of you that enjoy tweaking stuff to really juice a game’s performance. I’ve also had a couple of bugs that aren’t game breaking but are extremely annoying. A couple of times the game - which you launch from a dedicated screen to launch all three games, ‘cos for some reason you have to download them all at once since the Legendary Edition is three separate games standing on each other’s shoulders in a 120GB trench coat - has just lost all sound, apart from on the loading screens. And, and this is very persistent, two or three times during every fight, I just won’t be able to aim or fire at all, and I have to cycle through my guns until, I guess, the trigger shakes loose. In a shooter game, this is less than ideal.
But honestly: how many people are on the fence about getting this? You already are or you aren’t. If you have never played Mass Effect before, then you absolutely should get this edition. This is the easiest and prettiest way to play what is widely regarded - I would almost say indisputably - as one of the greatest trilogies ever made. Not even just of games, of all things ever. Mass Effect is great! The action, the drama, the cold frontier of space!
Another appreciated change: falling in the lava in the Mako is no longer an insta-fail.
It’s harder to say, honestly, if you already own these games on PC that you should bother getting this. Just slap some mods on the first ME’s ass if you want the nicer visuals, and keep on trucking. The benefit is mostly for console players, because we’re a few generations out from ME’s original release and this will just make it way easier and more funner to play on e.g. your eggbox. Thinking with my head, I’d say PC players don’t need it.
