Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)

Initially, I tried getting into Mass Effect many years ago – but never really could, for a multitude of reason: one of the major ones being my lack of patience for slow introductions or slower games in general. Today I'm more patient with that, so I decided to give Mass Effect another try, as I have access the Legendary Edition through Xbox Game Pass.

I try to be lenient with a lot of the game's systems and technical features, as it's over a decade old by now, but at the same time, some of the issues related to its age took away from my experience with the game, and therefore I can't be completely objective in that sense. I won't make a deep dive into every single aspect of the game, but the game's age clearly shows in its very basic combat and level design, navigation in the main hub (The Citadel), exploration of planets in the Mako (this one I knew was going to be a low light going into it), the stilted performances – both in terms of the actual voice work as well as the "robotic" animations of the characters, the jarring pacing and camera work. There's a lot here that's just dated... But it makes sense, the game is old afterall.

Me highlighting all these outdated aspects of the game is not to say I didn't enjoy, because I did for the most part, and the story is something that really had me hooked when I was approaching the finale. I was excited to discover the revelations; what all this with the reapers and the protheans – what's actually going on. I like the choices that I had to make – but I did dislike the execution of an interaction regarding a certain squad member. Not going to say more to make sure there's no spoilers in here, but a lot of the dated features mentioned above made that sequence lose a lot of the impact it would have had – but also, I felt there should have been more choice in what happens after – but I'm going to leave it at that.

As the title of this review says, I'm keen to see the improvements made in Mass Effect 2, and I'm interested to see where the narrative goes from here – and of course how my choices impacts the story going forward.

Giving the game 3/5 feels a little brutal, but I feel 4/5 is too high, as I did not enjoy the game to the same extent many others did, mainly because of how old it felt to play.

Update:

I've now played Mass Effect 2 (1½ years ago, actually) and have been trying to slog through 3 on and off... I say slog, because for the most part, I haven't been enjoying it, but the idea of tying a bow on it has kept me going. But now, I give up. The horrible mission tracking, the stiff deliveries of the voice lines - along with the awkward animations (don't hate me) and the mediocre gunplay finally had me convince myself to quit and uninstall. It just wasn't fun, engaging or intriguing to me anymore.

I hear people have this game series as their #1 of all time, and I really just can't see it. I guess you had to have been there back in the day, but also, "different strokes for different folks", so it's fine I guess. Perhaps the expectations I had were unfair, expecting a masterpiece - and it might be to others, be definitely not to me.

3/5

I never played the original games so this remastered rerelease was my first exposure to the franchise. When the originals came out, I was pretty much only playing sports management sims and 4X games. I did have an immediate and continuing impression of the series colored by my limited experience with similar games. It’s impossible for me to play this game without thinking back to the original Halo: Combat Evolved. This is probably the fault of the comparatively small number of games I’ve actually played in my life. Surely, there are other sci-fi shooters where humanity fights off an overwhelming alien threat through the bravery and skill of a single human hero and I just don’t know about them. Regardless, the whole time I was playing this, I was thinking “It’s like Halo with a story!!”

I realize I’m not being fair to Halo. I never owned an Xbox and only played at friends’ houses. At some point, I watched some or all of a playthrough of Combat Evolved out of curiosity. For my whole life, Doom and Halo have been the prime example in my mind of games with only gameplay and no story. It wasn’t until I watched a Halo 2 playthrough and read the books that I realized it had more to it.

Regardless of my comparison, the game has a very, very good story of a universe facing extinction from a powerful alien force. Both in the writing and in how your choices alter the story, it’s one of the best video game stories I’ve played. The way the geth/quarian war presages the reaper/Leviathan fallout wraps up a meta story worthy of a good novel. One of the hardest things in any work of fiction is finishing and this game does a great job with wrapping the story up.

I still think I like The Witcher 3’s a bit more but I have to admit that this series spreads the impactful choices revealed at the end of TW3 across multiple games and characters. I think what I prefer about CDPR’s game is that I felt Geralt’s story more personally. Despite not quite making me feel for him in the same way, Shepherd turns out to be a great character and I enjoyed developing his friendships, especially with Garrus. Or maybe I just prefer fantasy to sci-fi?

I never played the originals but this remaster has some gorgeously rendered scenes. The battle at the Citadel; watching Palaven burn; the Presidium and walking around the Citadel; Shepherd’s rebirth; the reaper battles; meeting Leviathan; the Prothean archive; and of course the always going to be epic final battle. All of those looked amazing even on my little 7 inch screen.

The three games are each unique in many gameplay aspects. At times this gives the games a pleasing sense of variety. After all, the world doesn’t always work the way you expect it to so an unexpected wrinkle can give the whole thing a sense of realism. At other times, the lack of consistency was annoying. I found I had to play 2 on the easiest setting just to survive but when I did the same in 3 I found I barely even had to take cover.

There were a few other things I wasn’t a fan of. I generally don’t like the “humans are varied but aliens have monolithic cultures, religions, attitudes” world building that the game uses (sexy lady alien race, warlike alien race, sleazy merchant alien race) but that’s a sci-fi trope everywhere and Star Trek remains my favorite sci-fi world of all time. I also did not like Kai Leng. His cool, confident superness was so forced. And frankly I thought he looked kind of dumb with his weird goggles. Lastly, there was a point in 2 when it felt like the missions were getting really repetitive to the point that I barely wanted to continue. Still, those were small moments in a massive game. For the most part, the missions were unique enough to be interesting. The story was well done in toto and most often in the details, as well. And it wraps so incredibly well. That ending had me as close to shedding a tear as any game ever has.

I played the entire playthrough on my Steam Deck and it worked perfectly. I might have had one crash and a few failed loadings but nothing else. The graphics were great. I got the Origin launcher to work offline with no trouble and mapped one of the back buttons to close the in game pop up. This was the first “real” game (after Aperture Desk Job) I completed fully on my Deck.

All in all, definitely a 5 star game.

The Mass Effect trilogy was my favorite series of any genre of all time. I missed the first game for a couple years until I tried it out at a friend's house, and it was that experience that turned me into an avid IGN/Gamespot/Polygon consumer -- so I wouldn't ever miss a game that was so perfectly targeted at me again. I've been a space opera fan since childhood when my dad introduced me to Star Trek: TNG. I ended up getting a bachelors in astrophysics and a PhD in aerospace engineering. This stuff is my jam. Hard sci fi is my favorite genre of story. RPGs are my favorite genre of game. Mass Effect had it all. Like everyone else, I was disappointed by the ending of the trilogy but the journey to that destination was fantastic nonetheless. I loved that they got voice actors from so many beloved sci fi shows. The music was great. etc etc etc, everything was amazing.

So obviously I had to get the remaster. But oof... it was a mistake. Games have evolved a lot in the intervening years and my expectations have grown with them. I've never been the kind of person who can appreciate things for the time they were made: not art, not movies, not books, not shows, not games. While it was clear that the improvements in this remaster were significant and there's no way it would make sense to play the originals rather than the remasters, the games just don't hold up for me. I still appreciate the details in the codex and how much hard sci fi they get in there. All the game podcasts are still talking about how amazing the character missions are, making your companions feel real and fleshed out. That's how I felt the first time I played too. But now, it feels so robotic: please complete this loyalty mission that ties into some singular thread of this characters past in order to get them to like you more. A single mission every time. With so many characters, I understand that long quest arcs for each one would be a massive undertaking. But games like Witcher 3 have really upped the ante for the quality of side quests. The combat just doesn't feel good in any of the games compared to games that have come out since. The planets feel confined when we've got the incredible freedom of games like No Man's Sky. Shepherd's story remains an interesting one. This second play through, I went full renegade and that definitely felt satisfying.

Here's hoping that the new Mass Effect game Bioware is working on will get them back on track after their last couple game releases, and take what has been a beloved franchise for so long and modernize it and push the entire genre forward like they did upon first release.

I would say there are two different audiences that should be discussed regarding Legendary Edition: new players and veterans. If you're a Mass Effect veteran and have all the content on your PC already, you're missing nothing new. It's a barely noticeable upgrade over the original games in terms of gameplay.

However, if you have never played a Mass Effect game before and are looking for an RPG, I can't recommend this game enough. You get 3 great RPGs that go well over 100 hours when all is said and done. This includes all DLCs and all features of the original games except for multiplayer in ME3. You get a great story, good combat, and meet some amazing characters as you battle foes throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

After playing this I think my ranking of the games has changed quite a lot. The first game has been improved most I believe, and it really makes the game stand out. It's definitely my favorite of the three now. Some thoughts regarding the games (I played them back to back so I can compare):

• Companions are best in the second game, but they are are always a highlight throughout the trilogy
• All vehicle segments are bad in some capacity, which made me appreciate Andromeda's vehicle
• Story, worldbuilding and dialogue, some of the best in the industry. Truly a classic.
• The action/gunplay was actually best in the first game. The second game changed many things with it and made things more hidden from the player. The third game had such terrible enemies and too long action sequences that it got boring.
• Music is awesome, games look gorgeous
• Had quite a few bugs, even after 8 months. Couldn't progress in a mission because of a bug.

Anyone who hasn't played this, what are you waiting for? This is a staple in games. Even if the gameplay is dated, the games are worth going through for the story and characters. I will be coming back to Andromeda soon as well so I can compare them again.

ME1: 8/10 ME2: 8/10 ME3: 7/10