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Mass Effect is a series I’ve wanted to play through for a while. I played the first game once years ago on PC or Xbox 360, I don’t remember which one, and I think my team got wiped out in our first encounter. Something like that happened and then I was done. I chalked it up to being just another BioWare game. A game I would love to play but was foiled by the need for strategic thinking. In other words, I figured it’s just another game I’m not going to be very good at. I struggle with games like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Dragon Age: Origins. Any games like those I’m just terrible at. I try and I try and then my party gets annihilated and I get frustrated and then I quit. So whatever happened to me in Mass Effect made me think it was just like all the rest. But I still had an interest in playing it and it wasn’t until the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition released that I remembered my desire to play through the series.
I heard someone actually refer to the Mass Effect series as a “space opera” and that triggered something in me. I’m not sure if I’ve ever played through a “space opera” before but that concept seems pretty cool and I love science fiction so I figured I’d try again, the Legendary Edition this time, fully expecting to fail. Again. But I didn’t. I surprised myself. I’m happy to say I actually beat it. Developed by BioWare and published by Microsoft Game Studios, Mass Effect was released for Xbox 360 in November, 2007. It was ported to PC and PlayStation 3 in 2008 and 2012, respectively, and both versions were published by Electronic Arts. It was remastered as part of the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition which released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2021. For this review, I played the Legendary Edition on PC.
Set in the future where interstellar travel is possible, the story follows Commander Shepard whose first name, appearance, and background is defined by the player. Shepard is a member of the Systems Alliance which is a representative body of all human colonies in Citadel space. The plot begins with Shepard and their squad sent to the colony of Eden Prime to recover a Beacon but before they reach it, they are attacked by a hostile race of networked artificial intelligence called Geth, commanded by a Turian and Special Tactics and Reconnaissance agent (Spectre) named Saren who kills a fellow Spectre and activates the Beacon before escaping. When Shepard finally reaches it, they have a vision of war and death. Afterward, Shepard and the rest of the Normandy crew are summoned to the Citadel to convince the Citadel Council of Saren’s treason. After presenting sufficient evidence to prove it, the Council makes Commander Shepard the first human Spectre. Spectres are agents responsible for preserving galactic stability by whatever means necessary. They are considered above the law and report directly to the Council. Shepard’s first assignment as a Spectre is to pursue Saren and save the galaxy from destruction.
Mass Effect is a story-driven action RPG and I would say the story is one of its best aspects. The writing is good, the stakes are high, I really enjoy Saren as a villain, and the voice performance are excellent and the cast is comprised of some notable talent including Keith David, Seth Green, and Lance Henriksen among some others. The worldbuilding and character development in Mass Effect are excellent, it touches on some interesting themes, and you will be forced to make decisions that will affect how things play out in the story. I think it is worth mentioning that the game does front load you with a lot of exposition dumps and information. Now there’s plenty of action on offer but it may take some time before you really get into it. However, this will depend on your actions.
The game shows off some of the combat in the very beginning but then it could be a while before you start blasting again. After the Eden Prime sequence, you visit the Citadel and while some firefights do take place here, this is primarily where you’re going to learn about everything. What is cool is that a lot of information about the galaxy and its history is tracked in your codex which you can access at any time. If you take the time to explore, interact with NPCs, and even complete some of the non action-oriented side missions in the Citadel, it could be a couple of hours before you’re exploring the galaxy and taking down pirates, blowing away Geth, and destroying shit.
The Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a compilation package which includes Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 along with their DLC. But the Pinnacle Station DLC for the first game is not included because apparently the developer lost the source code. All three games were remastered and come with some gameplay adjustments and technical improvements. The first Mass Effect received the most extensive changes to make it feel more consistent with the sequels but from what I understand not all bugs and quirks were ironed out. Luckily, fans have addressed many of the issues and there’s plenty of mods out there. You may want to consult the game’s PCGamingWiki page before playing.
The Legendary Edition includes not only just a visual overhaul but also many changes and additions for the better like faster load times, skippable elevator rides, a photo mode, full controller support for the PC version, and significant Mako improvements among other things. I think one of the bigger changes is the new Legendary Mode level scaling. You can select Classic Mode which is the original 1-60 level range or you can select Legendary Mode which drops the level cap to 30. You’ll level up slower in this mode but receive more talent points with each new level.
Before really getting into the nitty gritty, I just want to say that if you’re like me and struggle with some of BioWare’s other titles like Dragon Age: Origins or Baldur’s Gate, or any kind of party-focused RPGs like those, Mass Effect isn’t quite on the same level. Believe me, if I can get through it without a problem, anyone can. You are given a party or squad to manage and command but it doesn’t require a super strategic mind if that makes sense. I don’t remember the exact details of how I fucked things up on my first attempt of the original game but this time it wasn’t often that one of my squad members would fall. So I’m kind of dumbfounded at what I could have done wrong all those years ago. To be clear, I did play through the game on the Normal difficulty level and I do wonder if the changes in the Legendary Edition have something to do with it. Basically what I’m saying is, in my experience, Mass Effect, the Legendary Edition, is not that difficult on Normal.
If you enjoy science fiction, there’s a lot to love here. A lot of different alien races, numerous worlds to visit, and plenty of sci-fi action. I would say the only thing missing is ship battles. Shepard is given command of the Normandy early on in the story which is a ship. It’s how you fly around the galaxy and where you can access a galaxy map and interact with your crew. When you leave the Normandy, you must choose two squad members to bring with you and all squad members level up with you. Even the ones you don’t bring with you will level up which is nice. Every time you level up, you are awarded talent points that can be spent on various talents or powers that can be utilized to aid you and your squad during combat. You can equip Shepard and each squad member with different weapons and equipment that you find or buy and this can be done from the Equipment screen during missions or by interacting with a squad member’s locker on the Normandy. You can also apply mods and upgrades to weapons and equipment which can be swapped out at any time.
One of the bigger aspects of the game is morality. You will have to make a lot of choices that will effect the story and side missions. The choices you make will award you either Paragon or Renegade points. Paragon is associated with Charm and Renegade is associated with Intimidation. You’ll often have the option to charm or intimidate people and these are talents or skills you can distribute points to. What’s cool about the Morality system is that you’re not forced down a specific path. A good action doesn’t make up for a bad or evil one and decisions are final but the game doesn’t outright encourage one path or another.
The actual combat, even with the improvements and changes in the Legendary Edition, feels a bit dated and stale. It’s not terrible but without everything else surrounding it, this would be a very generic third-person shooter. You can walk and run around, snap to cover, and aim and shoot. It all works and works well enough but there’s nothing truly exceptional about it and some animations appear a bit stiff nowadays. However, I will say the gunplay feels pretty good mainly because weapons fire sounds excellent. Each weapon sounds powerful. You can command your squad to move to certain locations or follow you but I never felt it necessary to do that, at least on the Normal difficulty. They will shoot at and kill enemies on their own and firefights can become chaotic with enemies running and jumping around everywhere. Some foes will rush you but I never felt the need to plan out any form of attack or strategy. You can pause the gameplay to bring up the powers menu and dictate what power each squad member should use and this does prove to be helpful at times. It’s also worth mentioning that your squad members cannot die in battle but they can fall and you can revive them.
The action isn’t just restricted to typical third-person shooter gameplay. Many worlds are uncharted and these are where you get to drive the Mako which is an infantry fighting vehicle. Basically, you drive this thing around the worlds and it’s weaponized so you can shoot things like enemies if necessary. Mass Effect features numerous clusters of systems with multiple worlds but there’s usually only one world in each system that you can land on. Some of the others that you can’t land on can be surveyed for resources required to complete certain side missions. The Mako stuff is easily the weakest part of the action and game. Controlling the Mako, even with the improvements in the Legendary Edition, can be a pain in the ass and more of a pain in the ass is some of the terrain you have to traverse. It’s slow, it’s tedious, and not all that fun. I think the idea of exploring uncharted worlds is cool in concept but the way it’s done here is not great.
Many side missions will require you to visit an uncharted world to complete an objective and there’s simply not enough to do on these worlds to make up for the mostly boring Mako stuff. These worlds are basically just big maps with things like facilities, crashed probes, artifacts, and other resources you have to drive to. And simply driving from one thing to another becomes tedious and boring. Facilities and target locations are often surrounded by enemies and turrets which can easily be dispatched with the Mako and you’ll sometimes encounter a Thresher Maw that comes out the ground to attack you. I actually thought this was pretty cool at first and then I visited another world and got attacked by another Thresher Maw, and then again on another world, and then again and again. The encounters all play out the same. Repetition is one of Mass Effect’s bigger problems.
The uncharted worlds may look different, visually, even feature different atmospheric effects, but they all kind of feel the same and that goes for the facilities as well. It seems almost every facility or outpost you visit on these worlds look and feel the same and share similar layouts. You’re typically briefed before accepting a side mission or assignment but you can basically figure out how most of them will play out. Visit a planet, drive to the facility, enter and blow away the bad guys and complete the objective. At the very least, completing side missions and objectives and killing Thresher Maws is a great way to accumulate credits and experience.
Mass Effect does feature some what I consider conveniences. For example, when you kill enemies, you loot them automatically. I like how you don’t lose mods or upgrades unless you sell them or convert them to Omni-Gel. There’s quite a few things like these that I appreciated. As convenient as many things are, there are some things that are inconvenient like how shopping is done. When you interact with a vendor or the requisition officer, you can apply different filters to sort items but there’s no categorization tabs which I feel would have been a lot better. Like an assault rifle tab, sniper rifle tab, human armor tab, Turian armor tab, etc. As it is, you have to scroll through the list of items to see everything and that includes your own shit if you want to sell anything. You can at least sort your items to make finding what you’re looking for a little easier and you can mark multiple items as junk and sell it all at once which is nice. But I feel the whole shopping interface could be redesigned or streamlined for the better. Another minor inconvenience is not being able to distribute talent points to your squad while on the Normandy. You have to visit a world and select your squad members before you can do that. To be clear, these things are not a huge problem for me but when you play for hours, they become hard to ignore. Just minor inconveniences.
The best parts of the game easily lie in the story. Not just because of the story, itself, or the characters but because the missions are lot more interesting and take you to more interesting and detailed locations. Story worlds also contain side missions which are usually pretty straightforward but I still prefer these to most side mission objectives set on uncharted worlds. Story worlds are basically linear environments that keep the action contained and the narrative basically guides you through them. One of my favorite missions in the game is set on Virmire. One of your objectives is to assault a base and the way it plays out and is presented is very cool. The action, the way it builds up tension, the decisions you have to make – it’s all very well done. Most story missions take you to hostile locations so you’ll participate in plenty of firefights and even engage some bosses, none of which I found to be terribly challenging on the Normal difficulty. In fact, I would say the Thresher Maws were more challenging than most of the story bosses.
Visually, I think the Legendary Edition is an excellent remaster with a gorgeous and colorful presentation. Yes, some things look dated. As mentioned before, some of the animations appear stiff and facial animations are lacking but I do think Mass Effect was a good looking game for its time. It features a very slick look and feel and each story world does look and feel different, conveying different atmospheres and you’ll see some gorgeous backdrops. On the audio side, weapons fire sounds amazing as I indicated earlier and the gameplay is backed by a truly phenomenal score. The soundtrack is simply wonderful with a great mix of tunes that perfectly fit the theme of the game. On the technical side, the frame rate seemed to dip and hitch whenever I was driving the Mako around an uncharted world but it remained stable everywhere else. The game did crash on me once and at one point, I loaded a save only to fall into oblivion.
I really enjoyed Mass Effect. I love the story, worldbuilding, characters, and the morale system. The choices you make actually shape outcomes and affect how things play out. It’s very cool stuff and the world and lore are fleshed out really well. The combat feels a little stale, some aspects definitely show their age and the Mako stuff, while improved in the Legendary Edition, is not great and, unfortunately, consumes a large chunk of the experience. The best parts of the game are found in the story. Everything from the mission design to the environments to encounters are better in the story. The idea of exploring a galaxy, helping people out, dealing with side conflicts, collecting resources, and discovering things is cool but just not executed all that well here. The uncharted worlds are uninteresting and feel way too similar and getting around in the Mako is tedious. It’s because of the side stuff that I feel the game doesn’t reach it’s full potential. It could have been better. If the side missions were structured in the same way as the story, with actual crafted and tighter locations to visit and explore instead of just big maps with mostly tedious terrain, that would have been more enjoyable. You can tell the developers had some great ideas and you can see what they were going for but the execution isn’t always great. But, overall, I think this a great game and even with its issues, I still had a ton of fun.
I would recommend Mass Effect and I feel the Legendary Edition is the perfect place to start. If you’re looking for a good story and sci-fi adventure, Mass Effect has you covered. If you’re looking for a great third-person shooter, Mass Effect may disappoint. The combat isn’t bad but it is average. It’s certainly not bad enough to ruin the experience but I’ll say it again, if it wasn’t for everything surrounding the combat, this would be a very average third-person shooter. Mass Effect is a game with great characters and worldbuilding, a compelling plot, and a some cool and interesting ideas that don’t all land. But in the end it proves to be a fun time. Definitely check it out.