Mass Effect Legendary Edition

[Cahir]

Soo, recently I have finished Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Before, I have played only Mass Effect 1 and 2, but it was long time ago, basically right after their releases. Still, it turned out that I remembered quite a lot from ME1 and ME2. But it also turned out I have a different thought about some NPCs than I've had when I played the first 2 games for the first time.

I was so tempted to play this game without any mods, but unfortunately installing mods is my greatest vice. Some players suffer restartitis, I suffer modititis. I tend to install mods even on games I play for the first time. I just couldn't help myself... But I think overall it was a good choice for ME:LE. Especially the mods were beneficial for ME3 (mostly the ending)

I'll try to avoid spoilers, but it can happen from time to time, so be warned!

What I liked:

• The story - it didn't age much with time. Personally, I think ME story is Bioware in its prime. The world is very detailed, each race has a solid history and background. There are not too many side quests in overall, so I was not derailed from the main story. It has the pace I like.
• NPCs - this is where the game truly shines. I don't think there was a single joinable NPC I didn't like, although Zaeed and Katsuni were the least developed characters. But I still like them. It's impossible for me to list characters I liked the most, seriously. I can, however, point one NPCs whose reception changed 180 now and when I played the game years ago. It's Mordin. When I played it back then, he annoyed me, he talked too much, too fast, and he seemed cold. Boy, oh boy, I was sooo wrong. This guy grew some balls! One of my favourite characters, by far. Also, last time I played ME1 and ME2 in Polish, now I chose to play in English. And this was an excellent idea. Some voice acting is stellar. I could hear Garrus' and Thane's voices indefinitely.
• Skill system - it was simple. And I liked the simplicity. I didn't need to spend hours to figure out how to build my character. And I didn't bother to think about it. This game is all about the story for me, after all.

What I was indifferent:

• Item managing - here the simplicity is not necessarily a good thing. I didn't bother to think about the gear I wear, and generally I just picked my weapons more or less randomly. The game was not particularly difficult anyway.

What I didn't like:

• Planet scanning - it was just there, but the potential was wasted. It was more or less a waste of time. Nothing exciting comes from scanning the planet (maybe except ME3). Also there were many empty planets, where the only thing you could do is to read their description. As I've said, missed opportunity.
• MAKO - oh, I how many times my head was spinning after riding this damn thing. Never again.

What has aged a lot:

• The world exploration - it is something that bothered me the most. The world exploration was completely not engaging in this game. There were quite a lot of backtracking, there were practically no hidden places, no secrets, nothing. This was especially evident in ME1, there were times that I was simply bored doing the side quests. The locations are practically all the same.
• Dialogue system - So few options to choose from, and I didn't have a feeling my choices have significant consequences (besides obvious Paragon vs. Renegade choices)

It may seem I see a lot of flaws in this game, but these mainly stem from the fact that the game is old, and Bioware could only do so much to enhance it. But the story and the writing is still one of the best I experienced so far. Hell, I even shed a tear or two.

 

[Antimatter]

Thanks for this rundown! I haven't played the Legendary Edition, but I can agree with almost all the points based on my experience of playing through the original trilogy 3.5 years ago.

If I had to add to your bullet list of things I didn't like, it would have been the ending of ME3.

I also think the area design from ME1 has aged definitely. But it's good new players will be able to enjoy the story and characters of the trilogy thanks to this remaster.

 

[mlnevese]

Amazing Legion cosplay...

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Thanks @Cahir for sharing your impressions, and I mostly agree with what you and @Antimatter are saying about the game in general.
I played the original Mass Effect trilogy only a year ago, and I was so impressed by the excellent worldbuilding, storywriting, how complex and detailed the characters were, how much they felt like real people and real friends after all those missions together.
I loved getting all the background knowledge, the codex was like a library.

Of course the ending was... lacking. Fortunately I played it already with the DLCs, so it was better than originally, but it still didn't feel thought through, unlike the rest of the game. Endings are hard to create.

Planetary exploration could have been done better, yes. In ME1 I ended up skipping side missions because it got old very fast to drive the Mako through generic planets of roughly the same layout, and in ME2 the scanning was just monotonous, too. Doesn't matter. It's still a great game.

The many meaningful roleplaying choices were something I enjoyed very much, but the dialogue system hasn't aged well. I particularly dislike, in a game so RP heavy, to see only very short prompts in the dialogue wheel, because to me the tone/style of an answer matters much, and sometimes I clicked an answer only to hear the full sentence and think "Wait, that's not what I meant to say!". Similar problem as in Dragon Age: Origins.
But I'm sure in a completely new game such things would be different.

Altogether, it's one of the best games I've ever played (admittedly from a still rather short list, but anyway), even in the old version.

As for the Legendary Edition, I have only played through Eden Prime, the Citadel, and started to leave on our first mission so far, but was already very impressed by the improvements. Controls and UI have been adjusted in ME1 to resemble the other games, you can now have the same Shepard through all 3 games and don't need to play with a different face in ME3, and the visual overhaul in ME1? Very well done, looks much more alive and realistic. As I said, I haven't played very far, but just to give you an impression of what I mean, I have loaded a save from Eden Prime in both versions and made a screenshot at the same location, on the same PC. See for yourselves: