Author: Rich Meister
Mass Effect is an important series for RPGs and shooters alike. Throughout the original trilogy, it helped introduce a generation of players to the world of PC role-playing games while simultaneously bridging the gap between that world and the world of third-person shooters.
The Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings the story to modern consoles with the convenience to play them all in one convenient package. The trilogy as a whole holds up surprisingly well; even the earliest entry in the series is still mostly a joy to play, though having the whole story assembled makes it easier to see the flaws in this brilliant sci-fi story.
Mass effect Legendary Edition
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: May 14, 2021
MSRP: $59.99
Mass Effect puts you in control of Alliance Commander Shepard, a male or female earth marine turned Spectre (superspace cop), as you uncover a threat to the galaxy known as the Reapers. This race of sentient machines threatens every race in Mass Effect’s rich world of aliens, and Shepard is forced to convince them all the stop shooting at each other long enough to save existence.
The most noticeable updates to the series come with enhanced visuals that are most obvious in the first entry to the series; admittedly, the original game had more of a stylized and colorful vibe. But, like it or not, that has been stripped away to make it fall more in line with the realistic look of the last two entries. This series is now bubbling over with lens flare but looks pretty impressive on PC for the most part. In the first game, especially human characters can tread lightly into the uncanny valley, but alien races like the Turians and Krogan have never looked better.
The original Mass Effect is also the ripest with gameplay changes. It makes sense considering it was the game most in line with traditional Bioware RPGs. In the initial release, characters lived and died by their weapon proficiencies. For example, if you had sniper rifle-based abilities, Shepard would perform well with snipers; otherwise, the weapon sway would be so insane that they were basically unusable. In Legendary Edition, gunplay all around is a lot tighter, making it viable to use weapons outside of your character class wheelhouse. This game can make you a bit of a powerhouse in the back half of this game, but I’d say it’s a welcome change.
Mass Effect’s ground-based vehicle, the Mako is also no longer a problematic to control nightmare, I wouldn’t call it a fun time, but I found myself dreading those segments a lot less than I did all those years ago.
Mass Effect 2 and 3 are primarily unchanged apart from updated visuals and what I’m sure are some updates to combat running in the background that the average player wouldn’t notice. Additionally, an updated character creator unified across the three entries makes it easier to keep your Shepard consistent throughout the journey. However, systems like weapons and abilities still change even from the second to the third entry.
Mass Effect 2 chose to lock weapon usage behind character class. Unfortunately, this meant my Vanguard call didn’t have access to the old reliable sniper rifle until much later in the game when new weapon training was available. I found myself wishing they would’ve opted to switch to Mass Effect 3’s wight based loadout system, though I’m sure a shift that massive is easier said than done.
The real star of this show is Mass Effect’s story, and on the whole, it’s as fantastic as ever, though playing all three so close in proximity does lose a little bit of the magic. Upon release, this was a series that made a massive deal about player choice mattering; with this in mind, the lackluster payoff of Mass Effect 3 can get stuck in your head for most of the trip. However, Mass Effect 2 still feels like the series at its absolute best. The fantastic world they built is primed and spends all of the available time introducing you to unique characters and reminding you why you love this beautiful galaxy.
Mass Effect 3 is by no stretch a bad game, and it just gets bogged down by the weight of a bigger promise. Endings are complicated, and the series had a lot of loose ends to wrap up. While it’s mechanically tighter, there are fewer party members to experiment with, and the entire narrative feels forced to an unavoidable bottleneck. Unlike many people, I don’t completely hate Mass Effect 3’s ending; I just wish it had done more certain characters and storylines.
The PC version runs well on my GTX 1080. I got the occasional stutter when there was a whole lot of exploding on screen, especially in the backend of the first game, but nothing detrimental to my experience.
The largest and saddest piece of content cut from this collection is Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer. This co-op-based horde mode was a favorite of many, myself included, and I hope EA sees fit to bring it back down the line. Mass Effect 1’s Pinnacle Station DLC is also absent due to unusable source code, but game preservation was very different back then.
Verdict: The Mass Effect Legendary Edition is the perfect place to start, whether you’re new to the series or starting it for the first time. It shows its age, especially in the first game, but a slew of changes do the best they can with dated content. Nevertheless, Mass Effect is a phenomenal series, and this new collection is the best place to play it.
Buy it
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]