by Jack Hoda
Background
In November of 2007, Mass Effect took the gaming world by storm. Mass Effect was BioWare’s first third-person shooter RPG, and it was a hit. Beginning in the year 2183, the game follows Commander Shepard of the joint human military force, the Alliance. Mass Effect envisions a future in which humans stumble upon advanced alien technology on Mars, allowing for the development of faster-than-light travel and introducing humanity to a vast galactic, inter-species government throughout the Milky Way. Commander Shepard is on a mission to stop a race of nearly invulnerable machines, the Reapers, who are on their way to continue a 50,000-year cycle of exterminating all organic life in the galaxy.
While the gaming mechanics were still rudimentary for its time, the story was ambitious and immersive. Mass Effect quickly became a franchise. Mass Effect 2 and 3 vastly improved gameplay and continued to expand the galaxy as we know it. Fans were both thrilled and revolted by the same-sex and inter-species romance options, and many were enraged by the franchise’s ending. In 2017, BioWare hoped to redeem the infamous ending by introducing a new story, a more ambitious mechanical feat with open world components in Mass Effect: Andromeda. This game took us out of the Milky Way and into a neighboring galaxy. Unfortunately, Andromeda was not as well received as the trilogy. It was rather monotonous, and players like myself weren’t ready to give up the story, characters, and galaxy that we had come to love. BioWare took the hint, and in May 2021 released a fully remastered trilogy in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Shortly after Legendary Edition was announced, BioWare released a trailer for the next entry in the Mass Effect saga that seems to foreshadow a bridging of the two stories. With a new story on the way, Legendary Edition is in place to introduce (or reintroduce) players to this historic RPG. All three original games are now accessible from one launch screen with graphics pulled into the future. The Milky Way is ready again for exploration by veterans and newcomers alike.
Remaster
The original game has gotten the most extensive facelift. This clunkier edition finally has the crisp, clean look of the second and third games. The blurry landscapes and character details now give us that dark, Mass Effect aesthetic we’ve come to love, inviting us deeper into the dialogue and many side missions that drive this franchise. While the graphic facelift is astounding, some of the characters’ faces still contort in disastrously unnatural ways. There’s still some of that first-game charm, but the combat mechanics are by-far the greatest improvement to this game. The combat system is still noticeably different from 2 and 3 but much more responsive and fluid.
Screenshot of the Mass Effect Remaster main character, Commander Shepherd
Another major change for veteran gamers will be the seamless integration of DLC content. Some of us (like me) never played the DLC content, which I’ve heard felt rather disconnected from the overall games. Now, these characters and missions are fully integrated to an extent that veterans will be pleasantly surprised and newcomers may not even notice.
The galaxy-altering decisions that Commander Shepard is forced to make are somehow more gut wrenching than ever before. With all the perfected graphic and mechanical features, the dynamic story we fell in love with in 2007 remains untouched—for better or worse. Most disappointing was the decision to keep the restricted romance options of the first game. I’ve always found the addition of same-sex options in the third game—while incredibly welcome—a bit disconnected from the relationships established in the first two. It would have been wonderful for male Shepard and his crewmate, Kaidan Alenko, to have at least one new flirtatious dialogue to build from later, but the legendary edition does not seem to be interested in any story alterations. That said, many will be ecstatic to see the controversial trilogy ending replaced by the Extended Cut, potentially opening the door to a new sequel in Commander Shepard’s journey.
Playing Mass Effect in 2021
Legendary Edition has upgraded all of this to the level of masterpiece, but playing this story in 2021 can often feel quite eerie. One of the first missions in ME 2 involves a quarantine-like storyline in which you have to save an impoverished sector of a giant space station from a plague that doesn’t affect humans. The plot also forces you into working with a human supremacist group, Cerberus, to save the galaxy because the intergalactic government won’t believe the threat exists. The Krogan genophage storyline about a biological weapon making it nearly impossible for an entire race to reproduce, automatically recalls Hulu’s version of The Handmaid’s Tale as season 4 airs. The interspecies conflicts of this trilogy are dynamic and informed by deeply engaging world building that spans thousands of years, but the racial parallels in the dialogue can often feel heavy-handed.
Aside from the eerie qualities of playing these games in our contemporary moment, the remaster perfects an already beautiful aesthetic and dynamic story. For veteran players who love a replay, Legendary Edition makes for a wonderful playthrough, especially of the nearly impossible to replay, original ME 1. For new players, Legendary Edition will immerse you in a beautiful, dynamic world with near-seamless transitions and top-tier characters. With the next Mass Effect title slowly approaching, now is the perfect time to dive into Legendary Edition.