It has been almost a month since the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and during that time, hundreds of mods have already been created for Nexus and other mod managers, allowing players to do anything from having same-sex romances with character they normally can't, to using usually unobtainable equipment and weapons. In their search for new content, modders have recently discovered information regarding "Global Quests," large-scale questlines that were cut from the original Mass Effect game.
Restoring cut content isn't something that Mass Effect Legendary Edition mod makers are necessarily new to, with cut audio samples already being used to extend important conversations in the trilogy, such as players' final conversation with Anderson. However, while the original versions of the Mass Effect trilogy didn't allow modders to add additional audio of their own due to technical issues with the Wwise engine used by the games, Mass Effect Legendary Edition has improved audio modding capabilities, making the discovery of additional audio content vastly more exciting for modders.
The audio files that have been discovered in Mass Effect Legendary Edition are related to "Global Quests," side quests in the first Mass Effect that were likely to take the player around the galaxy and tackle large-scale issues. Perhaps the most intriguing find is a roughly 2-minute long audio clip of official dialog pertaining to a side quest focused on a conflict between the Hanar and a sect of Salarians known as the Lystheni. According to the Lystheni, a group intent on independence from the Citadel's Council, the Hanar are forcing their religion on them, while the Hanar claim that the Lystheni are using bioweapons against them.
In an interview with TheGamer, Ryan "Audemus" Ainsworth, a prominent Mass Effect mod maker and creator of the "A Lot Of Videos" mod that upscales all of the trilogy's cutscenes to 4K, discussed the new possibilities opened up by the discovered content. "These kinds of mods are the most exciting to me," Ainsworth stated, suggesting that while there wasn't enough audio to full restore the Global Quests to the game via modding, the audio was invaluable in creating mods that lack the usual "'fanfiction' feel that some mods have," as the modders would be using official dialogue to build their stories upon.
Cut content is always an interesting window into the development process of a game, but also possibly a window into future content for the series. Some of the scrapped Mass Effect content that modders have discovered in the trilogy over the years ended up being utilized in DLC for the main games or as content for the Mass Effect Infiltrator mobile game, meaning that there is the possibility that the concept of Global Quests could return in some form in Mass Effect 4.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: TheGamer