Subscribers can play remastered versions of the classic trilogy at no extra charge. Long overdue update: I've reviewed Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition.Sony's December free games for PlayStation Plus Essential include Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Update: Good news, everyone! I've reviewed Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition. I don't have a precise timeline for when those will roll out (since it's probably not healthy to binge 100 hours of RPGs in rapid succession and I don't want to make myself tired of it before the end) but that's my ambition. This review covers only the first game of the trilogy, but my current plan is to replay them all and review each individually to see how they hold up. It’s just a lot when you’re in the middle of a gunfight, and it makes the shift to the ability-based ammo system in Mass Effect 2 feel like a great idea. The problem is that in order to do that you have to pause, select the menu item next to the one where you change your graphics options, find the right character and weapon, then scroll through your list to find what you need. One thing that constantly gets on my nerves, given that you have the ability to swap out your weapon ammo mods on the fly, is that you’re effectively encouraged to do it whenever you need to counter a new enemy with a shield or other resistance. You can now mark a bunch of items as junk and sell them all at once when you reach a store, which certainly is a big increase in convenience, but other than that it’s a lot of slowly scrolling through tons of items to find what you want. Inventory management remains a drag on the pacing without a lot of upsides. ![]() 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. (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. (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.
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