Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

The good: All three games, with all the DLCs (except ONE mission in ME1 because apparently they lost the source code, lol) with uncapped framerates and visual upgrades. ME1 benefits the most in this regard. however I still feel that OG ME1 looks a bit better because of the lighting. The bad: Forces you to install the utterly despicable EA app. It is because of nonsense like this that I still have my physical PS4 copies. Anyway, get this game on sale. EA does not deserve your money.

Generally i'm not a big fan of remasters, but getting all three games with all DLCs included for how cheap this goes on sale is undeniably a good deal Just beware that this will require EA's janky mess of an app to launch, while the original versions of the games don't As for the games: [b]ME1[/b] was ok Does a good job of introducing you to the universe and lore. The main missions are fun, the story is good and got me hooked in quickly, the final lore dump that explains everything pays off well You also have agency within it, you can already make some significant decisions that will have consequences through the rest of the trilogy. Well, at least until ME3 Everything is well and good as long as you stick to the main quest, however when you delve into the side content there's a steep drop in quality The exploration sucks. There's a bunch of explorable planets you can land on, but when you do you'll just be dropped in a big empty map with nothing to do other than finding some collectables and getting your vehicle stuck in the jagged terrain You'll rarely ever find native life forms or anything that makes the universe feel alive, and when you do upon further exploration you'll disappointingly find those are just a few assets repeated across multiple worlds The side quests are even worse, they invariably lead you to a small map with a room full of enemies to defeat, and very quickly you'll realize those are the same 3-4 maps recycled over and over again This would be considered lazy if it was a small indie game, from an experienced developer like Bioware it's downright unacceptable, don't know how they dropped the ball so hard I still like the game, but boy does the main quest do some heavy carrying [b]ME2[/b] was great and a huge improvement gameplaywise There are significant changes to combat and inventory/equipment mechanics, controversial to some but i'm ok with how it plays out More importantly, content outside of the main quest is now worth playing We finally get rid of boring empty planets, replaced with a planet scanning minigame which is way less tedious and doesn't overstay its welcome, useful to find resources to upgrade your ship and equipment. You can only land on planets were a side quest is available, and the side quests are fewer in number but finally properly handcrafted Also better and more varied minigames, better galaxy map traveling system, the Hammerhead is way more fun to drive than the Mako. Just a more refined game and a better experience all around The story and main quest is also praise worthy, the new villain aliens are cool, the new faction you end up working for is more interesting than the Alliance, the cast of characters is the best in the trilogy, both the new ones and some old ones whose real time to shine is here. Excellent idea to structure the main quest missions in such a crew-centric way. Reminds you of those sci-fi TV shows like Star Trek these games are inspired from, and how the ensemble cast was core to them Best final mission of the trilogy too There's still a couple of things i disliked, some of those old alien assets are reused again here and there, almost as if the developers consider them a charming mascot. The series in general has that problem typical of space operas where it struggles to make alien planets and cultures feel truly alien, but the Krogan homeworld we see here is particularly disappointing, just a bunch of standard assets lazily put together. The Arrival DLC was a cool mission to play, but i felt like it didn't fit very well with everything else story-wise. this one would be easily fixed simply by moving it to the end after the final mission rather than in the middle of the game, it's meant to be a little prequel for ME3 anyway. I wonder if there's a mod for that But overall, good game, definitely the one i had most fun playing. Popular wisdom holds this as the peak of the trilogy, and i'm inclined to agree [b]ME3[/b] i have mixed feelings on No big complaints in terms of gameplay, but when it comes to the writing it's the black sheep of the trilogy There are some parts of the story and some new characters i disliked, but more importantly the game has a problem with player agency, which is the big selling point of the series. Many dialogues feel more "piloted" compared to the previous games, with less range in your options, even worse the game has an irritating tendency to "correct" your choices from 1 and 2. For example, [spoiler]in my playthrough i had chosen to replace the old council with a human-dominated one and i picked Anderson as representative, but now that i find myself face to face with them i still find an alien-dominated council with humans complaining that they are treated as b-tier members, and Udina as the representative. The game pays some lip service to my choices in dialogues but that's not good enough[/spoiler] So those choices were pointless and it feels like the writers are forcing me back on the track they prefer, which pissed me off quite a bit Anyway, the [spoiler]Reaper invasion[/spoiler] offered some cool moments, and they even managed to make Tuchanka look a bit more interesting The endings were notoriously awful in the original release of the game, thankfully in this version they are improved. As they are now i'm ok with them. If you're really desperate for [spoiler]a happy ending[/spoiler] there are mods for that Overall, it had highs and lows, probably not my favorite Bioware franchise but still very much worth the experience, especially if you're into space operas I'd characterize this as one of the most "accessible" Bioware series: the RPG mechanics don't go that deep and combat plays out more like an action/shooter You'll probably be able to get into this even if you're not big on RPGs