Mass Effect Legendary Edition : What You Should Know

With Mass Effect Legendary Edition now upon us, I present this repository of important things we know about this anticipated re-release for those who might be sitting on the fence or those clamouring for more info on this fan favourite Space Opera before buying it!

“It’s been an incredible journey revisiting the stories, characters and iconic moments of the Mass Effect trilogy, enhancing the experience for modern platforms while staying true to the spirit of the original,” said Mac Walters, Project Director on the Mass Effect Legendary Edition and lead writer of the original trilogy at BioWare. “Remastering a game, let alone three, is a huge undertaking as there’s over 100 hours of gameplay included, but we wanted to do this for our fans as well as a new generation of gamers looking to jump into the iconic story of Shepard.”

So what’s new?

Boasting an enhanced visual experience featuring remastered character models and a plethora of updated textures, the list of visual upgrades is nearly as long as the list of stores on the Citadel which are endorsed by Commander Shepard. Other improvements include shaders and VFX, updated lighting and improved dynamic shadows and enhanced Pre-rendered cinematics to make each story moment more impactful.

Comprehensive world building enhancements come to Mass Effect with added detail to several locations such as Eden Prime, Ilos and Feros – combined with updated interfaces, UI, various quality of life improvements and modernized exploration and combat through improved aiming, squad controls and behaviour make a complete package for an overhaul to this franchise.

We know what’s new, is the old still there?

Mass Effect Legendary Edition includes all three titles in the Trilogy (Leaving Mass Effect Andromeda out to dry in the solar winds), but what about DLC? Well, BioWare has us covered as it will include every single bit of post game content – from full blown expansions such as Overlord from Mass effect 2 or the Citadel Expansion for Mass Effect 3 to Weapons and Armours such as the Inferno Armour and the Firefight Pack. It even includes the respective pre order bonuses and extras like the Kingdoms of Amalur cross promotional Armour Set and Weapon and the Dr Pepper promotional set (Which somehow completely slipped under my radar). 

With all that content being remastered and included there is a bit of bad news for fans of Mass Effect 1’s Pinnacle Station DLC. The bad news being that unfortunately it is the only DLC not to be included. When development was underway, Bioware reached out to Demiurge Studios, the original developers behind Pinnacle Station, and were unable to use the source code as it had been corrupted since its last use. Although arguably the weakest DLC for the trilogy it is unfortunate to be missing from an otherwise complete collection for the franchise. 

For a detailed list on the many DLC and their content you can visit the Wikia page.

No Multiplayer

In a similar vein Bioware also disclosed that Mass Effect 3’s Multiplayer will also not be included in Legendary Edition due to several problems such as the complexity behind it and the question as to whether it would be supported post launch. And that’s without factoring crossplay and multi-generational crossplay with those who would still be playing the original multiplayer.  

Personally, I would’ve loved to have seen the Multiplayer receive a bit of love as the footage released so far looks impressive and I spent many an hour, and many a dollar, (Well, many a pound) playing it on it’s original release. I never got bored of running around as a Krogan smacking my enemies around with a hammer left and right, or dominating the battlefield as the Geth Juggernaut. Bioware is assuring fans that they have chosen to focus on what the majority of fans were the most passionate about, so whilst this may be disappointing we can look forward to that time and energy being applied to the single player content.

Due to release later today, I would wholeheartedly recommend this series to those who haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying it. With so much content and so many different experiences to be had with it, it is certainly a game which cannot be fully enjoyed through youtube or twitch.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB and is available now for pre-order on PC via Origin and Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with forward compatibility on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.