The Mass Effect Legendary Edition is set to remaster the entire original Mass Effect trilogy in 4K, returning fans to the Milky Way and the Normandy as they battle to stop the Reapers eliminating all organic life in the galaxy. The remaster won't just be upgrading the graphics from the original games, however, and not all of the graphical improvements revealed so far are as good as others.
The Mass Effect Legendary Edition will come with some significant edits to player character and companion design, and will even make some changes to the aesthetics of certain locations players will remember from the first three games. Here are the best changes coming to the Legendary Edition that have been revealed so far, as well as some which fans may find troubling as the remaster approaches its release.
Worst: The Lens Flares
Throughout the comparison images released so far, the screenshots from the Mass Effect Legendary Edition don't just upgrade the graphics, but often add lens flares over the top of iconic scenes. The overuse of lens flares was a common complaint leveled at the rebooted Star Trek movies, often obscuring visuals instead of improving them.
Not only that, but some sci-fi fans find lens flares immersion-breaking. They imply the presence of a camera moreso than a blood or water splatter on the screen does. Many Mass Effect fans will be hoping that the Legendary Edition doesn't overuse lens flares as much as the screenshots released so far would imply.
Best: Character Creation
The Mass Effect Legendary Edition will have universal character creation which will combine the disparate creators from the original three games into a single system. Not only will this allow player character models to be more consistent across the remastered original trilogy, but it will also see the model for Female Shepard significantly improved.
Male Shepard had both a unique character model based on Dutch model Mark Vanderloo and a separate customizable model. In contrast, players who wanted to explore the Milky Way as Fem Shep only had access to the clunkier custom model. Images released by BioWare so far already show significant improvements to the model for Fem Shep. As the player character, this could be one of the most significant upgrades across the entire original trilogy, with the custom models for both gender options looking far more polished this time around.
Worst: The Humanoid Companions
The N7 Day teaser trailer that announced the Mass Effect Legendary Edition shows off some of the graphical upgrades coming to Mass Effect's iconic companion characters. The lighting, texture, and particle effects look significantly upgraded across the board, but there is a notable divide between the more humanoid and more alien-looking followers.
This is most visible in the teaser trailer's versions of Miranda Lawson and Liara T'Soni. While the textures and lighting on Miranda's suit look far better than in the original, her hair still appears to have the blocky physics seen in Mass Effect 2. Similarly, the faces of both Miranda and Liara seem smoothed over by the new lighting effects instead of being made more realistic, giving them a slightly uncanny appearance. The teaser trailer, however, does show these characters out of context against a black background with a highly contrasting lighting. Hopefully these characters will blend more seamlessly into the remaster in-game.
Best: The Alien Companions
In general, the Mass Effect companion characters with totally alien appearances look far better in the remaster's teaser trailer than the more humanoid companions. The lighting and texture upgrades do wonders for the detail on the plated faces of Garrus Vakarian and Wrex. The fact that there's no real-life basis to compare these characters to allows companions like Mordin Solus to undergo huge upgrades without ever veering into the uncanny.
While the improved lighting effects have the side effect of smoothing over the faces of Miranda and Liara, they vastly improve every wrinkle, scar, and reflective surface found on the non-human faces of Shepard's alien companions. The humanoid companions don't look bad — they have certainly undergone upgrades from the originals, at least from what the teaser trailer reveals. Nonetheless, the more alien-looking companions blow them out of the water. They aren't held back by the difficulty improving hair physics like Miranda has. Their already unusual appearances don't risk straying into the uncanny, and fans can expect them to look great in the remaster.
Worst: Eden Prime
Eden Prime is the first planet players visit in the entire original Mass Effect trilogy. It is described as having the ideal conditions to host Earth-like life, making it an almost-utopian human settlement. However, when player arrive they find that not all is as it seems. The skies above Eden Prime are clouded by a dark red storm, and it isn't long before Shepard and their squad mates find themselves under attack by the Geth as they uncover the unfortunate fate of a planet once considered the perfect colony.
The problem with Eden Prime as revealed in screenshots of the remaster isn't that it looks bad. In fact, it looks beautiful, and far closer to the first game's initial idyllic description of the world. However, the remaster appears to remove all of the ominous parts of Eden Prime's design, including the dark red skies.
Not only does this risk taking away from the sense that something has gone horribly wrong in the colony, but it also points to a potentially larger problem. BioWare doesn't just appear to be upgrading the graphics of iconic locations in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, but at least in the case of Eden Prime seems to be taking some of them in entirely new directions that change the feel of the original locations. Many fans will be hoping this is done as little as possible, and that the Legendary Edition focuses on remastering rather than revising locations from the first three games.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition releases May 14 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.