Mass Effect Legendary Edition
The only way to play an unmissable series.
The Mass Effect trilogy is to modern video games what its mass relays are to humanity. In the series’ lore, tens of thousands of years ago an advanced alien race scattered mass relays around the Milky Way, which acted as bread crumbs leading humans to the galaxy’s furthest stars. In 2007, Mass Effect was dropped into the cultural conversation by BioWare, and along with its successors, acted as a beacon for nearly every modern blockbuster game made in its impressive wake.
Consider the cavernous gap that spans the original trilogy and its re-release: there’s a console generation and a half lying between the last game in the series and Mass Effect Legendary Edition ( Mass Effect 3 originally released for Xbox 360 and PS3).
Mass Effect 1 has the tightest and most succinct plot of the trilogy, but prior to the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, I told new players to skip it. “The combat is too rough,” I’d warn. “The Mako will drive you mad,” I’d say. Mass Effect Legendary Edition has made Mass Effect 1 unskippable.
Mass Effect 2 is more of everything the first game does so well: more squadmates with more personality, more stories, more side quests, and more playable hours. Oh, and more consequences if you don’t give those hours their due diligence - so set aside a nice chunk of time this summer.
while Mass Effect 3 may falter a bit when held up against Mass Effect 2, the Legendary Edition is a reminder of just how damn good this game is. The combat is tightest in Mass Effect 3 (it feels the most like Mass Effect: Andromeda), with seamless transitions between cutscenes and action and an especially satisfying cover system that makes popping up and firing off a sniper shot sickeningly satisfying.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition strikes the difficult balance of appealing to both long-time lovers of the series and people who have never played a minute of it. The changes to Mass Effect 1 make it playable in a modern game world, while visual upgrades massage the eyes and lightning-fast load screens ease the wait throughout all three titles.
Alyssa Mercante