Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remasters launching in May
See the new look in a new trailer
The adventures of Commander Shephard, legendary hero and shopper, will return revamped on the 14th of May in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. BioWare today announced a launch date for the remaster of their sci-fi RPG trilogy, which is coming with new prettiness and character customisation options, plus a whole heap of old DLC. No multiplayer, though. Have a gander at the refresh in the new trailer below.
That's the trilogy revamped with 4K resolutions in mind plus a load of DLC whammed in, from story missions to promo items.
In terms of prettiness, BioWare say the Legendary Edition packs "remastered character models and tens of thousands of up-ressed textures" as well as "improvements to shaders and VFX, updated lighting and improved dynamic shadows, volumetrics and depth-of-field". And they say pre-rendered cinematics are "enhanced".
They're also making a few tweaks to how the first game plays, which sound like they'll bring it more in line with the other two. BioWare say "combat and exploration are modernised through improved aiming, squad controls and behaviour, Mako handling and cameras", and they've updated interfaces and the UI. And they cryptically mention bringing "comprehensive world-building enhancements with added detail and depth to locations like Eden Prime, Ilos and Feros". The hell are world-building enhancements? Love that marketing lingo.
The three games will also now share character creation options, including more hair, makeup, and skin tone options, as well as making Mass Effect 3's Femshep the default for them all.
I'll have to see more of the games in action to get a real sense of the remaster (I sometimes prefer originals, when revamps change the tone too much or are janky up-resses) but I'm well up for another go round Mass Effect. I started playing Andromeda while waiting for the Legendary Edition, and its annoying companions and torrent of boring sidequests only made me want this trilogy more.
Bit sorry they're skipping the multiplayer, though. Project director Mac Walters said they saw a lot of potential issues to overcome, including expectations of cross-platform and what to do with folks still playing the original, and thought it all was "easily commensurate if not greater than uplifting all of Mass Effect 1". Though it was part of an era of singleplayer games bolting on bland multiplayer modes, I thought ME3's wave survival was pretty fun. I would've played another few hours again.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will launch May 14th on Steam and Origin, priced at £55. It'll also be on PlayStation and Xbox.
BioWare are currently making a brand new Mass Effect too. We don't much about it, but the trailer sure seems to show an older Liara.