From a story perspective, Mass Effect is great. It has a few kinks and some Early-Installment Weirdness, but for the most part it holds up. The main storyline is great, filled with exciting ideas, heartbreaking losses, and memorable characters that would go onto define the franchise and help cement Bio Ware's reputation as the king of companion characters in Western RP Gs. The thing is, pretty much everyone already knows that this story is great. That's not what tripped people up with this one. No, what tripped people up was how it felt to actually play the game. And in this regard, the Legendary Edition did make a number of improvements, though it couldn't fix everything.
For those who are unaware, the Legendary Edition is a remastered compilation of the Mass Effect trilogy for Eighth Generation Consoles and PC. It upgraded the graphics to 4K and made some changes to the gameplay, the most major ones being reserved for this entry. It also included almost every piece of DLC for the original trilogy on installation, so if you never bought any of it there is a good reason to try the LE. The only missing piece was actually from ME 1, the Pinnacle Station DLC. The code was lost due to a storage accident, and unfortunately hasn't been recovered. Honestly, if we were to lose any ME DLC, that was probably the best one. Pinnacle Station was mostly just a combat simulator with the bare minimum of a plot and no impact on the greater story. It's not terrible, but it is inconsequential and bland.
Back to the main game, the LE made a number of updates. One of the most obvious is the rearrangement of the HUD to mirror the later games. That part is fine and does the series some good. There's also an updated leveling system that reduces the level cap from 60 to 30, but compensates for this by doubling the skill points you receive from leveling up and increasing the XP thresholds. There's also the option to use the original leveling system if you prefer. I've run both, and personally I don't see much difference either way. Neither one is particularly easier or harder, and the general combat is unaffected.
Inventory management is slightly improved in this version, although it's still not great. There's an expanded max capacity and the ability to tag items as junk to sell or trash all at once, but in practice it means spending only slightly less time junking the piles of items you'll never use. It's not that you'll never find anything useful out in the world, it's just that you'll find so many things that you can't examine until after you've picked them up that the whole thing feels pointless.
The Mako tank also gets some updates. The HUD is changed to more closely resemble the on-foot segments, the speed and weight are a bit more controllable now, and there's a short boost option in addition to the jump jets. You can also see a marker on maps with a thresher maw now too, so if you prefer to avoid them you no longer have to worry about being surprised. Driving the Mako is definitely a smoother experience now, at least in theory.
But here's where we get to the game's biggest returning flaw, and that is the environment/level design. The segments for the main story feel crafted to fit the tone and story of their levels, but the side missions aren't. The planets you explore in the Mako are still the same randomly generated nonsense they were last time. They feel dull to explore at best, and tedious or frustrating at worst. The building and ship interiors all use the same floor plans with some minor variations in where obstacles are placed for you to walk around. I understand the in-universe justifications for this, but it's still mind-numbing after a while. It doesn't help that most missions boil down to either fetching an item, killing all the bad guys, fetching an item after killing all the bad guys, or if you're really lucky, talking down someone after killing all the bad guys. Variety is not this game's forte.
The combat at least is as functional as ever. Very little has changed from the original during the actual firefights. They can be pretty chaotic during the sidequests depending on the environmental obstacles, especially since the enemies in this game love to move around. Pausing to use the power wheel is often very helpful, and on higher difficulties you'll absolutely need crowd control abilities in your squad. Combat's not great, but it does its job and is rarely a bad experience.
Overall, I would say that the LE is the best way currently to experience ME 1. It improves on some of the base game's flaws but maintains the story and characters that we've come to know and love. The added polish is appreciated, especially since they didn't have to make as many changes as they did. The team at Bio Ware wanted to make sure that this game got some TLC before being released, and I appreciate that. It's still flawed, but it is better. The primary highlight remains its story, characters, and the rich world that was built here. If any of that interests you, I heartily recommend this.
Legendary Edition: The Polish Helps, but the Gameplay is Still Flawed
From a story perspective, Mass Effect is great. It has a few kinks and some Early-Installment Weirdness, but for the most part it holds up. The main storyline is great, filled with exciting ideas, heartbreaking losses, and memorable characters that would go onto define the franchise and help cement Bio Ware's reputation as the king of companion characters in Western RP Gs. The thing is, pretty much everyone already knows that this story is great. That's not what tripped people up with this one. No, what tripped people up was how it felt to actually play the game. And in this regard, the Legendary Edition did make a number of improvements, though it couldn't fix everything.
For those who are unaware, the Legendary Edition is a remastered compilation of the Mass Effect trilogy for Eighth Generation Consoles and PC. It upgraded the graphics to 4K and made some changes to the gameplay, the most major ones being reserved for this entry. It also included almost every piece of DLC for the original trilogy on installation, so if you never bought any of it there is a good reason to try the LE. The only missing piece was actually from ME 1, the Pinnacle Station DLC. The code was lost due to a storage accident, and unfortunately hasn't been recovered. Honestly, if we were to lose any ME DLC, that was probably the best one. Pinnacle Station was mostly just a combat simulator with the bare minimum of a plot and no impact on the greater story. It's not terrible, but it is inconsequential and bland.
Back to the main game, the LE made a number of updates. One of the most obvious is the rearrangement of the HUD to mirror the later games. That part is fine and does the series some good. There's also an updated leveling system that reduces the level cap from 60 to 30, but compensates for this by doubling the skill points you receive from leveling up and increasing the XP thresholds. There's also the option to use the original leveling system if you prefer. I've run both, and personally I don't see much difference either way. Neither one is particularly easier or harder, and the general combat is unaffected.
Inventory management is slightly improved in this version, although it's still not great. There's an expanded max capacity and the ability to tag items as junk to sell or trash all at once, but in practice it means spending only slightly less time junking the piles of items you'll never use. It's not that you'll never find anything useful out in the world, it's just that you'll find so many things that you can't examine until after you've picked them up that the whole thing feels pointless.
The Mako tank also gets some updates. The HUD is changed to more closely resemble the on-foot segments, the speed and weight are a bit more controllable now, and there's a short boost option in addition to the jump jets. You can also see a marker on maps with a thresher maw now too, so if you prefer to avoid them you no longer have to worry about being surprised. Driving the Mako is definitely a smoother experience now, at least in theory.
But here's where we get to the game's biggest returning flaw, and that is the environment/level design. The segments for the main story feel crafted to fit the tone and story of their levels, but the side missions aren't. The planets you explore in the Mako are still the same randomly generated nonsense they were last time. They feel dull to explore at best, and tedious or frustrating at worst. The building and ship interiors all use the same floor plans with some minor variations in where obstacles are placed for you to walk around. I understand the in-universe justifications for this, but it's still mind-numbing after a while. It doesn't help that most missions boil down to either fetching an item, killing all the bad guys, fetching an item after killing all the bad guys, or if you're really lucky, talking down someone after killing all the bad guys. Variety is not this game's forte.
The combat at least is as functional as ever. Very little has changed from the original during the actual firefights. They can be pretty chaotic during the sidequests depending on the environmental obstacles, especially since the enemies in this game love to move around. Pausing to use the power wheel is often very helpful, and on higher difficulties you'll absolutely need crowd control abilities in your squad. Combat's not great, but it does its job and is rarely a bad experience.
Overall, I would say that the LE is the best way currently to experience ME 1. It improves on some of the base game's flaws but maintains the story and characters that we've come to know and love. The added polish is appreciated, especially since they didn't have to make as many changes as they did. The team at Bio Ware wanted to make sure that this game got some TLC before being released, and I appreciate that. It's still flawed, but it is better. The primary highlight remains its story, characters, and the rich world that was built here. If any of that interests you, I heartily recommend this.