Here's What You Need To Know About Mass Effect Legendary Edition

EA and BioWare have released a reveal trailer for Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the remaster of the Mass Effect trilogy (Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3) and it will be available on May 14, 2021 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. This version of the game will also be playable through the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

So, what’s different in this version of the game? Before that, be sure to check out the reveal trailer below.

Ready? Okay. Let’s break down important details released by BioWare so far regarding Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Legendary Edition comes with all DLC for Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3

For starters, the Legendary Edition comes will all downloadable content across all three games. BioWare has stated that there are over 40 DLCs added to this remaster from weapon packs, to story DLC. It’s all in this package with some readily available once you start a game to some that require a bit of unlocking like picking up those DLC characters.

Bioware is improving the visual and performance of all three games

This is to be expected from any remaster. Aside from the ability to play the game in ultra 4K with HDR support, you can expect faster loading times, 60 fps for consoles, and unlocked fps for PC . And yes, the infamous elevator rides in the first Mass Effect have been improved. If the game is done loading ahead of the elevator ride, you will be given the option to skip now.

The team working on this remaster has retouched the visuals in all three games. From character models, textures, and VFX. All have been improved to provide a more modern feel. Expect higher resolutions as well as improved textures, updated shaders and enhanced pre-rendered cinematics for cutscenes. PC players will get 21:9 widescreen support, DirectX 11 support, and believe it or not - controller support. Finally!

Many changes and improvements were done in Mass Effect 1

With Mass Effect being the oldest of the trilogy, and is pretty outdated in terms of gameplay, it’s understandable BioWare spent a good chunk of their time improving the first game. These changes go from giving a wider view in third person to movement, making the gameplay feel more smooth and a bit more inline to what you will expect once you go to Mass Effect 2 and eventually Mass Effect 3.

In Mass Effect 1’s gameplay, they’ve removed class-based restrictions, improved aiming by including a ‘snap to’ enemy feature and weapon rebalancing, tweaking every arsenal available in the game. They even rebalance the amount of XP you earn in the campaign, making you reach the level 60 cap without the need to go into new game+.

BioWare also said that they have improved the boss encounters as well as resolved a good amount of bugs.

Remember the Mako? They’ve improved the vehicle controls, physics, pretty much the overall handling of the ground vehicle to make it more tolerable than before.

There will be no additional story content added to the legendary edition

If you were hoping BioWare was planning to add never before seen content to this version of the game, don’t hold your breath as all the focus is to improved the original content of all three games. They have no plans to remove or add content in this remaster.

The ending of Mass Effect 3 in Legendary edition will have the extended ending

Hate it or love it, how the trilogy ended will forever remain a touchy subject for fans of the trilogy. It is what it is and they won’t be changing it any further. But Mass Effect 3 in the Legendary edition will have the extended ending, which was added to the game via patch after numerous complaints on how the conclusion of the trilogy was handled.

Character customization unified for all three games

Mass Effect Legendary edition will feature a universal character creation with the character creation for Mass Effect 1 to feature assets and styles found in Mass Effect 2 and 3. Legendary edition will feature new hairstyles, skin tones, and makeup to give players more creative freedom to make their unique Shepard.

Mass Effect 3’s default female Shepard will be available in Mass Effect 1 and 2

Since the default female Shepard design was only finalized and even marketed in Mass Effect 3, BioWare have included the character model to be the default model for both Mass Effect 1 and 2.

Mass Effect Legendary edition will not feature Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer

Sadly, you won’t get to play a remastered version of Mass Effect 3’s co-op multiplayer game mode, which tasks up to 4 players to survive waves of enemies and do specific tasks in each mission. It was initial planned to bring back ME3’s multiplayer for the remaster but got cut along the way. With multiplayer out of the picture, Galactic Readiness, a feature that ties your efforts in multiplayer to your single player campaign, have been rebalanced.

These are the big changes so far in Mass Effect Legendary edition and more could come to light as BioWare shares more details on this long-awaited remaster of a beloved trilogy.

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