Let’s go over everything that has been revealed about Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, from the release date, missing content, and more.
Remake and Remaster
Mass Effect was a full-fledged RPG, with shooter elements as a side dish, rather than being the center focus. It made the combat clunky, but not unbearable. With Legendary Edition, the first game has an improved combat system, UI, overhauled interfaces, improved aiming and squad controls, and so on. Mostly quality of life improvements seen in the sequels, but those that were greatly missed in the first game. With Legendary Edition, the first Mass Effect plays as smoothly as the succeeding two titles.
Mass Effect 2 and 3 however didn’t need much polishing. Instead, these two games receive some quality makeup. All three titles can be played in stunning 4K, with HDR and DX11 support. An insane amount of textures, shaders, VFX, lighting, and models received a beautification overhaul. Unlocked framerate on PC, better depth-of-field, and anti-aliasing are also included.
Players can pick more customization options for their characters. The female version of Shepard from Mass Effect 3 is available from the first game in Legendary Edition.
Missing content (DLC, Multiplayer Mode)
But, everything can’t be perfect. Remember Pinnacle Station? The DLC for Mass Effect that introduces the training facility full of holographic combat situations? No? That’s alright, most people don’t remember it. It was basically an advanced tutorial of sorts. This add-on was even left out of the Mass Effect PS3 version. The third-party studio that made it, Demiurge, lost the source code. BioWare did their best, but no one managed to find it.
That’s not all that’s being cut. For starters, do you know that Mass Effect 3 has a pretty active Reddit thread where people match up and play its multiplayer mode? That’s what you call a loyal playerbase. However, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition lacks the multiplayer mode of the third game. Mac Walters, the game’s project director, said it was too much of a challenge. Integrating cross-play, bringing in the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer players. All of that would take up too much time and energy. Most of which was used to improve the first game.
The multiplayer mode in Mass Effect 3 holds up even today. Interesting classes, a bit of grinding and loot boxes, solid combat. People still play it, that should be enough evidence that it’s a pretty fun mode. It’s a shame we won’t see it in the Legendary Edition, but you can’t have it all.
Release date and System Requirements
So, when can you relieve the LEGENDARY adventures of Commander Shepard? Soon actually, Legendary Edition drops on May 14 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC via Origin and Steam. It’s coming with 40+ DLC (including all promo packs, weapons, armors, and more). But, will you be able to run it? The trailer looks spectacular, so are the system requirements too steep?
Nope, I’m sure most older PCs will run it just fine. You can check out the system requirements below:
Minimum requirements for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-8350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GPU: NVIDIA GTX 760, AMD Radeon 7970 / R9280X GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 120GB available space
Recommended requirements for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1070 / RTX 200, Radeon Vega 56, GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 120GB available space
What do you think, is the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition everything you hoped it would be? Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section down below!
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