When it launched in 2007, Mass Effect was an unprecedented game in its genre – a next-generation sci-fi space opera RPG featuring complex politics, provocative moral decisions, a unique dialogue system, inter-species dating prospects, and Ashley Williams, the worst ever NPC who totally got wiped out on Virmire like the vapid, xenophobic trash she was. It was an amazing game. But it also kind of sucked.
The controls sucked. The combat sucked. The load times sucked. The Mako sucked. Not including Garrus as one of the aliens you get to bang sucked. Nostalgia is one thing, maybe, but not even the #memories can make up for those same problems in 2021. And with most of BioWare’s marketing focused on the Mass Effect Legendary Edition’s visual improvements instead of those other, equally important improvements, I don’t think those worries were entirely unreasonable. I loved Mass Effect then, but I wasn’t convinced I’d love it now. That would suck even more.
Oops. My bad.
The controls have been revamped. The combat too. Load times on my Xbox Series X are instant. Okay, so the Mako sucks, but it sucks less. And I forgot about the Garrus thing, actually, but I definitely didn’t waste most of my time on the SR-1 trying to hook up with him, but if I did, it was a joke, obviously, because I’m not even into turians and he’s more like a bro and besides, how would that work with the mandibles anyway, so shut up. I’m with Liara, forever. Until the sequel, I mean, so I can dump her for Jack, maybe, or Thane, or some other guy who isn’t Garrus even though he’s an option in the other games. I’M NOT EVEN MAD.
Out of the three games included with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the first is the one that feels the most like it’s a previous-gen game. Because, duh, it is – but this version of it could be mistaken for an Xbox One game from, I dunno, 2017. That’s a compliment! I expected my replay of this game to be a tedious, frustrating, nostalgia-nuking chore in service of Mass Effect 2’s character import feature, but you know what? Taking off from Virmire without Ashley Williams was just as exhilarating as before, and I didn’t even have to deal with wobbly sniper mechanics to get there.