In a few months, BioWare and EA will launch Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, the highly-anticipated remaster of the original three Mass Effect games, all bundled together in one cohesive package. BioWare is making changes to all three games in the trilogy to bring them up to modern standards, though the game that is getting the most changes is quite easily the original Mass Effect game.
Since the original Mass Effect is older, this makes sense. And while there will be changes made to the other games, like Mass Effect 3's extended ending being baked into the experience instead of being a separate thing, fans are going to notice the most changes in the original game when they revisit it later this year.
It's possible that BioWare has yet to reveal all the changes it's made to Mass Effect 1 in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, but here are all the big changes that the studio has confirmed so far.
Combat Changes
There were some combat alterations between the original Mass Effect and its sequels, but Mass Effect: Legendary Edition works to give the games a more unified feel. This will include improved aiming in the original Mass Effect game, as well as all three games in the series using a single, dedicated button for melee attacks. Players will also notice that aiming down the sights in the original Mass Effect is a lot more reliable in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
AI companions have also been improved for the first Mass Effect game in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. As some may recall, the AI in the original Mass Effect sometimes didn't respond all that well to commands and would occasionally make stupid decisions that got themselves killed. That shouldn't be nearly as much of a problem in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. However, enemy AI is also improved in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, so fans should keep that in mind as well.
Other combat improvements in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition have not been discussed in great detail, but have been vaguely mentioned by BioWare. Players should be able to experience better boss battles and they should also notice a better first aid cooldown in Legendary Edition when compared to the first game, though it's unclear exactly what that means at the time of this writing.
One of the more frustrating aspects of the original Mass Effect game was its unreliable auto save. One wrong move in combat could mean repeating a huge chunk of the game, but Mass Effect: Legendary Edition makes it so the game auto saves more frequently, which should go a long way in saving players' some headaches.
New Game+
A key element of the original Mass Effect game was the need to go back through in New Game+ if players really wanted to experience everything. There were some actions in the story that were nearly impossible to take unless players were on their second playthrough and had enough XP to purchase the skills required to take those actions. While Mass Effect should still have the New Game+ option, BioWare has changed it so players don't need to use New Game+ if they want to reach the level cap and experience everything properly the first time around.
Thanks to the XP re-balancing in the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition of Mass Effect 1, players will now be able to hit the level 60 cap without going back through the entire game. In turn, this will allow players to carry over their saves immediately from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2 without having to play through the first game multiple times to get the choices and squadmates that they want for their story.
Mako
The original Mass Effect game earned critical acclaim at the time of its release, but many critics took issue with one element in particular. Very few people were impressed with the Mako vehicle in Mass Effect 1, often complaining about its cumbersome controls. A drivable Mako wasn't featured in Mass Effect 2 at all, so it seems as though BioWare was well aware of how many people felt about the machine.
Instead of removing the Mako from Mass Effect 1, BioWare has instead decided to improve it. Those playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition should discover a version of the Mako vehicle that is significantly easier to control than the one in the original Mass Effect game from 2007.
Graphics
Players will also notice a Mass Effect Mako that has a lot more detail to it and generally looks way better than the one from 2007. One of the biggest and most obvious improvements to Mass Effect in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will be the upgraded visuals. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition maintains a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second when playing on Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, PS4 Pro, and PS5, and the performance shouldn't be too shabby on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles either.
Mass Effect 1 graphics comparisons show just how far the game has come in the Legendary Edition when compared to its original release. Character models have a lot more detail to them, as do the game worlds, weapons, and effects. The lighting has also been improved massively, resulting in a game that is far superior to the original in terms of graphics.
Elevator Music
Graphical improvements will be present in all three Mass Effect games, but another improvement is exclusive to Mass Effect 1. As some may recall, Mass Effect 1 featured excessive elevator rides, which were really clever ways for BioWare to hide the game loading the next area. To make these elevator rides somewhat less boring, though, BioWare included audio clips that players could listen to on the elevators that provided some extra context and helped to flesh out the story a bit more.
Losing these audio clips would be a shame, but making players stand in elevators for long periods of time is also silly. So BioWare has compromised by keeping Mass Effect 1's elevator sequences in the game, but speeding them up enough so that they will no longer slow the pacing down to a crawl.
Next-Generation Enhancements
There is no proper PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X version of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. While the game is playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X thanks to those consoles being backward compatible, it won't be able to take full advantage of the new consoles. That being said, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will still have some improvements when playing the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X, most noticeably through even faster load times when compared to playing the game on other systems.
DLC
BioWare supported the first Mass Effect game after its launch with DLC, and almost all of that DLC will be included in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition from the get-go. Unfortunately, one piece of Mass Effect 1 DLC won't be in the Legendary Edition. Due to the original code for it no longer being available, Mass Effect 1's Pinnacle Station DLC will not be featured in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. So while most of the Mass Effect 1 changes in the Legendary Edition seem like good things, some of the changes are not without their drawbacks.
United Front
In an effort for the original three Mass Effect games to be more unified, BioWare has created a new HUD for Mass Effect 1, and has implemented a universal character creator. What this means is that those playing Mass Effect 1 will have a lot more options when it comes to creating their version of Commander Shepard than they did in the original version of the game.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition launches May 14 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
