Mass Effect Legendary Edition review. Gamers are bound to be furious

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a gift for any “raging gamer”. Each game of the collection is capable of lighting the fifth point with a bright fire. ME1 has too many changes, it used to be better. In ME2 - only the textures were tightened up, couldn't they try? ME3 generally needed to be redone, and they left this stupid rainbow in the end. They also ask for a lot of money for a set: from 3,500 to 4900 rubles, depending on the platform. Is it worth it? The question is really difficult. Let's figure it out.

For those who became a gamer only in the previous generation of consoles and only know Mass Effect: Andromeda , which in a decent society of fans of the series is not accepted to talk about, we will briefly tell you about the "Legendary Edition". This is a collection of three action/RPGs called Shepard's trilogy. Playing as a brave representative of humanity and acting as a diversity- manager, that is, recruiting representatives of different races, genders and religions into the ship's crew, the gamer must stop the Reapers. This is a biomechanical race, confident that intelligent beings will sooner or later create an AI that will destroy everyone. To prevent this from happening, the Reapers independently "devour" all organic matter every 50,000 years.

The "no creature - no problem" approach does not really like Shepard and he enters into an unequal battle with the Reapers. Dynamic battles, a story-rich world, charismatic characters, engaging dialogues, moral choices and consequences of decisions made, and romance - this is the set of "that very Bioware " to Anthem , Andromeda and the controversial but attractive Dragon Age: Inquisition. 

A lot depends on whether you know anything about Mass Effect. The green newbie and the fan who managed to take part in word-of-mouth battles on the forums, defending or scolding the "multi-colored endings" will have different motives for parting with several thousand rubles. With the first, everything is simple. Want to check out the series? The Legendary Edition is the best and easiest choice. For one purchase, you get three games, forty add-ons, 4K, HDR and gamepad support. The original Mass Effect has really been reimagined graphically and gameplay. Now it's a vibrant game with high-quality textures and a modern, slightly simplified combat system. Yes, dear veterans who have seen the "red sky of Eden Prime", everything is so. And this is the main problem for you.

"Legendary Edition" Mass Effect is somewhat reminiscent of last year's trilogy Mafia: Definitive Edition , where the second part received a set of improved textures, and the third - belated patches. Only instead of a remake of the original game here is a remaster in the spirit of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for PC . Locations have been transformed with new textures, lighting and objects. Somewhere they added vegetation, threw stones, and on Noveria they made a complete overhaul, demolishing a couple of walls and making a direct passage between important points. The legendary lairs of bandits, made according to the principle of "copy-paste", have also changed - and now they do not catch the melancholy of those who like to vacuum the map and complete all third-party quests. 

Outerwear, armor, weapons, faces were processed not only by a neural network, but also by artists by hand. Aliens were especially lucky: turians, asari, geth and even krogan. Their faces, in contrast to the "smoothed" human faces, are rich in small details and unusual textures, so they have been transformed for the better.

There are a lot of improvements with sophisticated formulations such as "diffuse shading", "bokeh" and "natural light reflection". Together with high-definition and more contrasting textures, they make the picture not only more modern, but also brighter. This is the main problem of most remasters, which are based on improving the graphics of the original, and not completely reworking it. Application of modern methods and technologies to an outdated engine (recall that we are talking about Unreal Engine 3) makes the artists smile enough, and the gamers worry about the lost atmosphere and the betrayal of the original idea of ​​the authors. And who is right - you will not immediately understand. Wandering around the ruins of Feros and driving Mako around the planets is now more interesting. Noveria has become like a snow-covered area, rather than a closed polygon with artificial blue lighting and a white carpet. On the other hand, Eden Prime. This is the opening level of the saga, setting it up for its special atmosphere. We arrive at a once heavenly place that greets players with crimson skies, charred bodies, devastation and a huge ship that looks like some kind of insect. What is happening is not clear. But obviously something pretty scary. 

You can compare the quality of the remaster on the corpse of poor Jenkins

In the remaster, the sun breaks through the leaves of the trees, illuminating the face of the charming Ashley Williams. Private Jenkins, seemingly overwhelmed by the beauty of Eden Prime, lay down on the ground. Somewhere in the distance, something takes off. It looks like a ship, but you can't tell right away, because the sun shines directly into the visor. Eden Prime really looks better, clearer, more modern, and from the standpoint of an artist, most likely, more correct. Maybe the dark atmosphere was born due to the technical restrictions imposed on the original, which was created for the Xbox 360. Now the lighting has been fixed and Eden Prime has been transformed. For new gamers, especially those running the game on an 8K OLED TV with a 120Hz refresh rate, these are great changes. For veterans - like a knife through the heart.

Eden Prime looks like another planet. But has it really gotten better?

The strange feeling that it has become better, but worse, haunts not only in the schedule. The combat system was brought as close as possible to what can be seen in the second part. Prior to this, the differences were too obvious and inconvenient for those who go through the games one after another. Normal squad control has appeared, Shepard has learned to shoot from all guns without a penalty in the D&D style for handling non-core weapons, the sniper rifle's scope no longer "walks". Changes to shooting added dynamics to the game and unexpectedly simplified it. Starting the game on the penultimate difficulty level, fans of the original who know all the shelters by heart will be surprised at how easy it became to shoot. A huge geth rushing at you or a krogan pumped up with shields used to dream in nightmares, and now falls after several accurate hits to the head. And again: for beginners or those those who were annoyed by the original boevka would be really thrilled to shoot. But those for whom the grass was greener before, andMass Effect is  more interesting, most likely to be disappointed.

Another disappointment will be the "sewn" Russian voice acting. Mass Effect cannot be launched with English voices and Russian lyrics, at least for now. Therefore, if you do not want to hear the legendary creation of Snowball, you will have to play with the English localization.

The author does not sit on a suitcase with the EA logo , but really thinks that the developers did their best. On social media, where a harsh verdict is given on the basis of a two-minute trailer, the remaster has already been unfairly called "lazy." The original Mass Effect has  dozens, if not hundreds, of small changes in graphics, shooting, Mako driving, and more. Now the first part does not stand out so much, if at all, from the background of the rest. 

There are fewer sexual angles, but a photo mode was invented for Miss Lawson fans

In Mass Effect  is now convenient, interesting, easy and enjoyable to play. But many fans also love the original because it is so complex and frankly crooked in many places. Are the graphical and gameplay changes an interference with the original idea of   the authors or a natural development of ideas? Every fan will have to find the answer to this question himself. This is important because it is the remaster that is of greater interest to the fans. They probably already have Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 . The games have gotten better, got 4K support, but they will still look good when launched now on PC or Xbox with backward compatibility.

The remaster of the first Mass Effect turned out to be of high quality. A large and, most likely, technically complex work has been done, which is visible to the naked eye. As a compilation, Mass Effect Legendary Edition is quite good. It can be easily recommended to beginners. Fans need to arm themselves with a magnifying glass to closely examine all the changes in the first part, as well as a calculator to decide whether to take the game at full price or wait for discounts.