Mass Effect Legendary Edition is finally here, bringing the entire original trilogy to the current generation of consoles. Complete with 4K visuals, 60 FPS framerates, enhanced textures, lighting and shadow effects and over 60 bits of DLC across all three games, there’s a ton of content packed into one convenient package. But is this $60 remaster worth the price of entry?
To help you figure that out, we’re going to run through a few different factors: Story, Gameplay and Improvements.
Story
The Mass Effect trilogy’s storyline is (arguably) one of the very best you can experience in video games, and comes from developer BioWare during its prime.
It’s all a bit of a space opera, with epic battles, plenty of in-depth conversations, and more lore surrounding the galaxy’s various planets, species, and civilizations than you can shake a stick at.
Whether you’re a series veteran or a complete newcomer, there’s something to still enjoy here. Veterans can try (and most likely fail) to try a different build, make different decisions, and romance a different crew member (you’re going to romance Garrus, though… again). Newcomers get to experience one of the biggest and best sci-fi RPGs of our time and see what all the fuss is about. Plus, you get to enjoy it with all of the visual and gameplay enhancements, which definitely help iron out a lot of the first game’s issues.
All we would say is brace yourselves for Mass Effect 3’s ending. It was divisive… at the least.
Gameplay
Not taking the gameplay improvements that Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings to the trilogy, the core mechanics and systems here are fairly enjoyable.
In our opinion, especially in the first game things can feel a little shallower than you may expect from a deep RPG, but give it a couple of hours and you’ll eventually forget about them and find yourself soaking up all the sci-fi story, gorgeous environments and engaging conversations all over again.
That being said, even with some improvements, there are some rough patches. Despite making a specific mention of Mako handling improvements in the first game over the original, it still handles… pretty poorly.
Add to that some cumbersome menus (why can’t we open the map with a single button press?!) and some rather lacking tutorials at the beginning of the opening game and it can take a bit of time to get into things.
Despite all of these, there’s a ton of depth with various quests, dialog options, and choices that mean replaying the entire trilogy can be well worth your time. Especially considering your Commander Shepard can be transferred into Mass Effect 2 and 3, meaning there’s a nice sense of continuity to your adventure throughout all three games.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition Improvements
The main improvements you’re going to notice in Mass Effect Legendary Edition come in the form of visual enhancements. Improved textures, resolution, framerate, draw distances, and lighting and shadow effects make the game look better and ever. We’re particularly impressed with the improvements to the character models, which are noticeable thanks to the close-up camera shots that the game uses during conversations with NPCs and during cutscenes.
There are a few minor improvements to the gameplay side of things, too. For example, the reworked Mako controls are… just okay? And we’d have loved to see a rework of menus and the general UI across all three games to make things feel a little sleeker. Our main gripe is with the map, which, given you’ll be using it a lot to navigate complex, built-up areas like the Citadel, can just take too long to open by going through the main pause menu.
BioWare has also opted to introduce a new level scaling system in the Legendary Edition. The Legendary leveling system reduces the level cap from 60 to 30, but those level increases will bring more significant changes. It makes for a steadier rate of progression with less of a grind. We’d recommend using this for newcomers, but veterans may prefer to try and grind their way to the level 60 cap of the originals.
To round things out, Mass Effect Legendary Edition includes over 60 bits of additional content across all three games, with only a handful missing due to compatibility issues (or the files just being lost altogether in the case of Pinnacle Station). All of this DLC, combined with three lengthy sci-fi RPGs means you’re getting an absolute ton of content here, and the ‘complete’ Mass Effect trilogy experience.
So Is Mass Effect Legendary Edition Worth It?
In our opinion, yes, Mass Effect Legendary Edition is absolutely worth it. While there are still some bugs and niggly UI issues, the scale of which EA and BioWare have managed to remaster the trilogy is very impressive. All three games have never looked better, even if they do show their age at times.
But even then, the gameplay and story are so compelling, it’s easy to forget about these smaller issues in the grand scheme of things. There’s an absolute ton of replayability here, and with all the DLC packed in there, too, we think Mass Effect Legendary Edition is well worth the $60 price tag, and would be an absolute steal if it’s discounted in the future.
If you’re looking for a game to tide you over during the quieter summer months, then this is a solid choice.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is available now on PS4, PC, and Xbox One, and runs at an ‘enhanced level’ on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S to make use of the extra graphical horsepower.
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