It’s still a pretty great roleplaying mechanism that rewards consistency with more persuasive conversation options.
Behind all of that is Mass Effect’s signature morality system, which lets you choose to play Shepard as a truth and justice-style Paragon or a Renegade who gets the job done by their own rules. Of course, just about every major world you visit contains at least one weighty, life-or-death decision that we know will have repercussions in Mass Effect 2 and 3, including the fates of major characters and even entire species. In hindsight, I can see how that might’ve been an issue for the sequels.) (I remember the first time I played, which was relatively soon after Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, I was annoyed that Shepard couldn’t choose to accept Saren’s offer to join him. He’s certainly evil from the jump, but as you learn more about him you find that he has beliefs that drive him and an argument to support them – even if it’s one that no sane person would get on board with. Meanwhile, Saren is a strong villain who comes across as both a monstrous traitor and at times somewhat sympathetic.
It’s legitimately tough to decide which two characters to take with me on each mission because I want to hear how they’ll interact. Wrex, Liara, Tali, and Garrus’ personalities come through strongly in their voice acting and dialogue, like when Garrus needs to be talked down from his shoot-the-hostages style of law enforcement. To be fair, there’s nothing terribly wrong with your human crewmates, Kaiden and Ashley – they just pale in comparison to the four aliens who’ve earned their reputation as some of the best companions in RPG history. The story of Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy working to stop the rogue Specter Saren from jumpstarting an ancient cycle of galactic genocide hasn’t missed a step in the past 14 years, and neither have its unforgettable alien companion characters.
#Mass effect legendary edition upgrade
(The new photo mode is a nice addition, though I don’t know if the original Mass Effect – even after its 4K upgrade – is a good-enough looking game to inspire a lot of photographers who could just as easily be practicing their craft in a game that originated in this decade.) However, the nice thing about aliens is that they’re immune to the uncanny valley effect because for all we know that’s how their faces are supposed to look – so they mostly look excellent.
It’s not terrible but it definitely stands out next to current games. Sometimes those eyes have an uncomfortable, unblinking gaze. In contrast to their detailed and well-lit skin, a lot of human characters look like their faces are paralyzed between their upper lip and their eyes. Its biggest weakness – visually – is its facial animations, which are hard to ignore considering how much you see of them.
#Mass effect legendary edition series
(I played on Xbox Series X.) Environments are a tad on the sparse side when it comes to how spread out everything is, but textures are sharp and detailed and the lighting effects look respectably modern. In general, Mass Effect looks good at 4K.