[Review] Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Legendary Relics that are More Perfect!

It’s no secret that the original Mass Effect trilogy is still recognized as the best western RPG franchise of all time. Even though we haven’t finished all the games yet, there are still strong memories stored from the first two series. Especially Mass Effect 2 which is indeed a game with an extraordinary story that focuses more on the relationship between characters than only paying attention to the World-Building aspect. The story and characters may be the main strengths of the series, but we think the gameplay portion offered is also quite solid and still worth playing in the current era, which is also the reason why there is a desire to play it again.

EA and Bioware have finally answered the fans’ pent-up desires by preparing remaster for the original Mass Effect trilogy, and I don’t think there’s the right time to revisit Commander Shepard’s adventures until the end of his story in saving the existence of the galaxy.

Storyline

Packaged in a trilogy game format that also binds to several media such as novels and comics, maybe many of you feel that Mass Effect offers a massive and complex story. Yes, it’s not entirely wrong indeed, because although there is a pretty big concept depiction in some places, Mass Effect as a whole is built with a simple story focus. This trilogy tells the struggle of various races of living beings in the galaxy to survive from the threat of The Reaper.

You will play as an elite soldier named Commander Shepard who must carry out a mission to save the galaxy from the cycle of destruction that continues to occur every thousands of years. This is a simple story that is delivered very effectively, a story that will always involve you in conflict to encourage decision making that is ready to test morals. What makes the story in Mass Effect so special and memorable for us, of course, lies in the characters. All the key characters in the series are described perfectly and seem like someone who means a lot to you. Remember that this story is not only focused on you as a player, but also the struggles and relationships between characters from various races to maintain their existence in the galaxy.

Upgraded Graphics with Top Quality

It’s not a remastered game without a special overhaul, and you have to admit that this Legendary Edition version manages to deliver top-notch quality. Even when you see the graphic comparison trailer, you can see how far this remastered version has made with the previous game. Of course the quality of each game is quite different because the first Mass Effect game was released in 2007 while Mass Effect 3 was released in 2012. Looking at the distance of 5 to 6 years between releases it might not be that far for a big trilogy game like this, but there are some significant changes in each release. games that make it more modern and more suitable for newcomers to play.

Mass Effect 2 and 3 were good enough games for us from a technical point of view, but the first game wasn’t that perfect and even felt outdated, especially from the feel of the rigid gameplay. Fortunately the Legendary Edition version has fixed various problems which finally made the first Mass Effect series more comfortable to play. Now the gameplay feels smoother and less rigid, this is especially evident in the exploration section when driving the Mako space car which was once very difficult to control. There is also an overhaul in the UI that is more pleasing to the eye, better accuracy and weapon handling, and much more.

So what about the graphics? Short answer: the game looks great, although it’s not exactly perfect. For example, the original Mass Effect game which was released in 2007 looks much better in this remastered version. Everything from the quality of textures, character models and the addition of other visual effects is presented neatly. One exception, there are some characters that look even better in the original game, but this is of course just a trivial matter or a nitpick from us. While for Mass Effect 2 and 3 you can still see an overhaul, but don’t expect drastic upgrades like what the first series offered.

The remastered versions for the three games are still quite friendly with PCs that have standard specifications. We happened to run a bit of testing on a 5 year old Lenovo laptop and all the games were running at pretty decent performance. Support for 4K resolution and high frame rates are also plus points that make this remastered bundle even more worthy of getting.

Gameplay Improvements

We think it’s important to talk a little about the gameplay aspect, because despite the changes that have made it easier for modern gamers to accept, these are still games that have been released for more than a decade from the previous generation of consoles. In terms of presentation and gameplay, it doesn’t fit the standard of today’s games, which is the reason why some people may not be able to give the same appreciation as us. So as long as you accept it openly, then there is no significant problem.

The biggest compliment we can give is the implementation of RPG elements which are quite dominant in the gameplay. From the outside, many people may see it like a standard third person shooter game, but when you play it live, there will be many options given to strengthen your character. Whether it’s choosing weapons and modifications, or the many variations of skills to learn, there’s definitely a lot to gain in the future.

Even though each game is built on the same basic gameplay, we can still feel the differences that the Legendary Edition brings to optimize the existing experience. For example in the first Mass Effect game, players can now run outside of combat, weapons now have different shooting modes, and now you can even give separate commands to each companion. There’s also a modified battle arena they’ve brought to all games, which now looks better and has a different placement of the cover area.

While in battle or exploring, you can now access Photo Mode to capture the best moments along the adventure. This means that there is no limit on the field of view when you want to take the best screenshots in battle, or if you want to take clearer screenshots by removing objects that are blocking your view.

Conclusion

Despite the outdated game concept designs that can still be found, this is easy to overlook because the original Mass Effect trilogy is one of the best RPG series you can find on the market. And with the release of the Legendary Edition version which brings many improvements not only in terms of visuals, but also technical aspects that make it more comfortable to play, you think there is almost no reason to skip this series. This is arguably the incredible Mass Effect trilogy that many people are still familiar with, but with a more perfect quality.

Excess	Lack
A legendary RPG trilogy with an amazing story and memorable characters	Not completely smooth gameplay animations and controls
Top-notch graphics quality, especially for the first series	A few minor bugs and glitches here and there
Improvements in the gameplay section
Added a variety of new features such as Photo Mode
Still friendly to play on standard spec PC