The original Mass Effect is seeing some gameplay changes in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Gamespot recently attended an hour-long presentation that showcased the Legendary Edition and detailed the game, including various changes that are being made. No changes are being made to the end of Mass Effect 3 (sorry haters), though the “extended edition” will become canon and the only ending available. The game that is seeing the most amount of changes in the Legendary Edition, particularly gameplay changes, is Mass Effect. The original Mass Effect will see improved aim assist with a “stickier lock-on” (Gamespot’s words), keeping you locked on to targets while strafing. There’s a button now specifically for melee attacks, and weapons are being re-balanced significantly. There are also no longer any limitations on weapons based on class, which is an enormous change to the original Mass Effect. I’m replaying Mass Effect right now on my Xbox, and one of the most frustrating things is only being able to use two weapons as a Vanguard. This will no longer be the case. You cannot “train” in the weapons your class doesn’t specialize in, but you can use them, which is significant.
Bioware is working on the inventory system right now, which needs a major overhaul. Let’s be honest, in Mass Effect, it’s a mess. The change to the inventory system won’t be anything groundbreaking, but it should be good enough and more organized. The HUD has also changed, looking cleaner, and is a little smaller. Issuing commands to your squadmates is more in line with Mass Effect 2, and your team will now actually listen to directions. Enemy AI is also being improved. Everything is smoother in the original Mass Effect now in order to make the gameplay more fluid.
The most important change is the Mako controls, which are a mess in Mass Effect. It’s now much easier to control, which is very important considering the number of planets you have to explore. There are also a number of lesser changes which are listed below.
- In-scope aim smoothing
- Cover pass (Per Bioware: In ME1, the cover pass includes improvements to AI pathing, adding cover options for some encounters and fixing certain cover points that were previously broken in legacy. This also includes better behavior overall for squad and enemies to use cover appropriately.)
- Rebalanced XP for level 60 cap, which means you don’t have to do NG+
- More consistent autosave (thank God)
- Improved boss encounters
- Improved cool down for first aid
- Unified minigames across platforms, but no indication as to whether that means we’re getting the PC’s ring game or the console version’s Simon Says.
Mass Effect is probably the weakest game in the trilogy in terms of performance and gameplay, so it’s refreshing that Bioware is taking the time to fix many of the problems of the original. Especially the Mako controls. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition releases for the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on May 14.