Game Review: Mass Effect Legendary Edition
The beloved science fiction video game trilogy Mass Effect is back and this time it’s been remastered in glorious 4k definition, but is it worth your time and money to play through?
A legendary trilogy
In 2007 and from the creators of one of the greatest RPGs of all time in the form of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came the first Mass Effect game. Back then it blew me away. It was everything any science fiction fan wanted.
A fantastic plot, amazing characters and action that admittedly wasn’t the greatest was good enough to take you through the adventure of Commander Shepard and co. Then came along Mass Effect 2, a game that blew the first out of the water in pretty much every single area. Even today ME2s graphics hold up well and the gameplay was radically improved from the first game, and it is rightly considered one of the best video games ever made.
A few years after that came ME3 and the epic conclusion to the series and while there was a tonne of criticism of some of the story decisions and that ending it was a solid enough final entry that in my opinion wrapped up the saga pretty nicely.
Now, I’ve been gaming for many years so sometimes I forget that entire generations of players missed out on what I consider a golden era of video games. Instead, they were introduced to shite like Fortnite or the other many lacklustre titles that have been churned out in recent years, which is why the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition made such an impact.
What’s new?
First off Mass Effect was completely rehauled both in graphics and gameplay and this version is by far the best to play. From firing it up for the first time I was taken back to 2007 and those amazing hours I spent exploring the galaxy as Commander Shepard.
The gameplay tweaks made are excellent and make the gunplay feel so much smoother than in the original. The overhauled graphics also finally give the game the ability to deliver the huge scale and scope that it aimed for back in the day. Seeing a 4k version of Sovereign taking off in the first mission was awesome. The sound was also improved and upgraded, and it sounds incredible on a decent TV.
The first game got the attention and love it required to be properly remastered and it even includes the DLC that sees Shepard taking on a band of pirates to stop them crashing an asteroid into a colony. This brings me to the biggest inclusion in this remaster. Every single piece of DLC for every game is included in the price. ME2 and ME3 had several fantastic pieces of DLC, and all are worth playing. If like me, you couldn’t afford to get all the DLC back in the day the Legendary edition is well worth picking up.
There are no changes made to the story of the games and why would there be? The plot of the trilogy is often regarded as some of the best writing in science fiction let alone video games.
ME1 naturally got the most attention in this remaster. ME2 and 3 however, only got a slight graphics upgrade but were upscaled to 60 FPS and now run super smooth on the newer consoles especially the Xbox Series X. If you were expecting complete overhauls of those games as well, you might be disappointed.
Overall, the ME Legendary edition is well worth the money. Playing through the series again with all the DLC included and it never looking and playing so well was thoroughly enjoyable and if you’ve never played these games before, go out and get a copy. You won’t regret it. These games were Bioware at their finest, it’s just a shame that the studio in existence today is a pale shadow of what it once was, and I will be very surprised in the announced new entry in the series can come anywhere close to the greatness of the originals.
Final Score – 9/10
