The Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster was the remaster that I wanted to happen the most. For two reasons: one is that they are my favorite series of all and two because it always felt the most obvious remaster project a company could undertake. I would look at the night sky night after night and the stars would ask me: "why hasn't EA remastered the ME Trilogy yet?" and I would sadly answer that I didn't know. But there was always the next day, and eventually EA saw the light and greenlit the project.
There was some doubt surrounding it. Bioware wasn't on top of their game to say the least, it's EA™ and you don't have to look far to see how much developers can screw up remasters. And by screw up I mean really screw up. The weeks leading up to the release were a bit worrisome because of that plus the fact that there was minimum gameplay shown (which in hindsight was a very weird decision) yet when the collection was finally released it was glorious.
Mass Effect 1 got the lion share of work, understandably so, and it is as result a better game than it was a 15 years ago. They managed to make the combat fun. Not in an engaging way like ME2 and ME3, but in a pleasant kind of way. One of the improvements is that they changed how some guns work to offer a little bit more variety and it was quite fun to use a semi automatic assault rifle with explosive rounds as an engineer. The visual enhancements were very meaningful as well, with some levels receiving an overhaul, which further added a feeling of freshness to the game. One detail that I really appreciated was the improved Thresher Maw fight. Not only it was more engaging, but it also added elements from the ME2's fight that made the series more cohesive. Talking about that, there were also trilogy wide improvements, like a unified character creation and more visual parity.
I was surprised by how much work ME2 got. Beyond the up res work there were new effects and the lighting was notably improved. Compare the gunship fight from Samara's loyalty mission in the original game and the remaster for example. ME3 seems to be the game that was less worked on and I believe it could have used some more ME2 style improvements. The up res textures really helps that game though.
Not everything was perfect. I think the performance, on PC at least, is not quite as smooth as I'd like. Old bugs remain and some new ones appeared and there are a few textures here and there that aren't in their correct place. A reworked Priority: Earth had always been a loose hope, so I won't hold that against it, even if it was the right call. I also miss the multiplayer.
All in all, the Mass Effect Legendary Edition was a big triumph in my book, and I hope in EA's as well. It offered the games at their best for old fans and a fantastic way to play those games for new ones.
The stars are undoubtedly happy.
There was some doubt surrounding it. Bioware wasn't on top of their game to say the least, it's EA™ and you don't have to look far to see how much developers can screw up remasters. And by screw up I mean really screw up. The weeks leading up to the release were a bit worrisome because of that plus the fact that there was minimum gameplay shown (which in hindsight was a very weird decision) yet when the collection was finally released it was glorious.
Mass Effect 1 got the lion share of work, understandably so, and it is as result a better game than it was a 15 years ago. They managed to make the combat fun. Not in an engaging way like ME2 and ME3, but in a pleasant kind of way. One of the improvements is that they changed how some guns work to offer a little bit more variety and it was quite fun to use a semi automatic assault rifle with explosive rounds as an engineer. The visual enhancements were very meaningful as well, with some levels receiving an overhaul, which further added a feeling of freshness to the game. One detail that I really appreciated was the improved Thresher Maw fight. Not only it was more engaging, but it also added elements from the ME2's fight that made the series more cohesive. Talking about that, there were also trilogy wide improvements, like a unified character creation and more visual parity.
I was surprised by how much work ME2 got. Beyond the up res work there were new effects and the lighting was notably improved. Compare the gunship fight from Samara's loyalty mission in the original game and the remaster for example. ME3 seems to be the game that was less worked on and I believe it could have used some more ME2 style improvements. The up res textures really helps that game though.
Not everything was perfect. I think the performance, on PC at least, is not quite as smooth as I'd like. Old bugs remain and some new ones appeared and there are a few textures here and there that aren't in their correct place. A reworked Priority: Earth had always been a loose hope, so I won't hold that against it, even if it was the right call. I also miss the multiplayer.
All in all, the Mass Effect Legendary Edition was a big triumph in my book, and I hope in EA's as well. It offered the games at their best for old fans and a fantastic way to play those games for new ones.
The stars are undoubtedly happy.
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