All the details of the remaster of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

By Deny Smith
In Game
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Mass Effect fans have long dreamed of a remaster of Commander Shepard’s adventures and the crew of the Normandy. But the announcement still made them nervous: what if EA comes up with another trick in the style of the reissue of  F95Zone: Hot Pursuit , changes in which must be looked for with a magnifying glass? We attended a closed presentation of  Mass Effect: Legendary Edition  – and it seemed to us that this time the publisher chose the path of the Hero, not the Renegade.

Electronic Arts sent three key members of the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition development team to the presentation . The main one is Mac Walters – the permanent writer of the series, who worked on all parts. Some fans blame him for the bad ending of Mass Effect . They are so offended by Walters that when searching for his name on Google, the first query comes up for Mac Walters ruined Mass Effect . This, of course, is not true, but we are not here to argue once again about which color of the ME3  finale cuts to the heart not as painful as others. We’re here to discover the developer philosophy, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition details and carefully examine the first footage of the reissue.

About the approach to creating Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

Walters called the process of examining the source files of the trilogy “archaeological digs.” This is not surprising, since all parts of it were powered by  Unreal Engine 3 . At the same time, it is not possible to transfer games to the fourth version of the popular engine. Walters said that the developers studied this issue with Epic Games , the creators of the Unreal Engine , and concluded that the changes that the transition would entail would be too radical. This will make the games feel completely different.

Also, the developers immediately decided not to touch the plot and characters of Mass Effect . After all, Shepard’s story and the characters of the Normandy crew members, as well as a number of other heroes, is one of the main reasons why millions of gamers love the trilogy. The authors of the Legendary Edition focus on improving the graphics and updating the first part. It seems that the rumors were not lying: EA was  really afraid that newcomers who were not familiar with Mass Effect or who only played Andromeda would be seriously intimidated by the original game. It is noticeably outdated both graphically and gameplay. Most of the presentation was devoted to her changes. But first, what exactly is the reprint.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Compilation Compilation

For some time now, players were afraid that EA was offering them to buy a pig in a poke. In stores, pre-orders for a collection have long been opened, which did not even have a detailed description. This gap was closed by the producer of the reissue, Crystal McCord . In addition to three games – Mass Effect , Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 – gamers are waiting for:

  • over 40 DLCs, which include story stories, characters, promotional weapons, armor and various packs;
  • support for 4K-resolution and HDR;
  • improved graphics, namely: models, lighting, shadows, visual effects. Tens of thousands of original uncompressed textures;
  • 60fps support on Xbox One Xand PS4 Pro ,difficult person test,  as well as Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 ;
  • support for widescreen monitors and high refresh rate displays;
  • improved gameplay;
  • “Life-enhancing changes” – fast loading of levels while riding the elevator, improved MAKO control and a number of others;
  • universal character editor;
  • single launcher to launch three parts.

How the original Mass Effect will change

A lot of changes have been made to the visuals of the original game. But we, on the contrary, will start with the gameplay. Let’s make a reservation right away: the authors did not show the combat system and long journeys on MAKO to various planets. Obviously, all the authors’ wishes are still under development. However, so many nice improvements have been announced that I sincerely wish the studio good luck. So, for example, the developers are planning to:

  • improve the AI ​​of opponents and squad members;
  • remove the restriction on the use of weapons depending on the class;
  • remove penalties when shooting for a certain class;
  • improve the balance of XP distribution so that gamers have one playthrough to reach level 60. Previously, this required a “new game +”;
  • update the user interface and make it look like the HUD from ME2and

Also, the developers want to somehow improve the boss battles. Whether this means that they will become lighter is unknown. Particular attention was paid to demonstrating the visual changes of the entire trilogy, but especially the first part. For publication, the studio provided only a couple of comparative screenshots, but much more was shown on the air.

What Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Improved And What Remains Unchanged

Mass Effect is Shepard’s trilogy. But not everyone played for the man with the face of the model Mark Wanderloo. Many created their own hero. One of the features of the franchise was the ability to import your save not only to transfer experience and decisions made, but also the face of your character. This often did not work as it should. Therefore, in the Legendary Edition, the developers presented a single editor, which, firstly, will allow you to transfer the created physiognomy without problems, and secondly, it will allow you to create a slightly more unique hero. The authors added more options for choosing hairstyle, ears, eyes, skin color, and so on. In addition, in the first part, you can now choose the official face of the female version of Shepard, which appeared only in the third part of Mass Effect .

In addition, the authors confirmed that the games will not have new animations (the developers only fixed dozens of bugs([pii_email_aef67573025b785e8ee2]) and glitches), multiplayer, and support for the PlayStation 5 features – adaptive triggers and 3D sound. Also, you shouldn’t wait for additional or cut content and support for ray tracing. After all, we’re talking about Unreal Engine 3 games .