Ahead of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition’s May 14 release date, BioWare outlined a number of Mass Effect Legendary Edition changes that improve all three games.
Some of the enhancements include improved aiming, better damage tracking, and greater continuity between stories and especially Shepards across the trilogy.
The original Mass Effect benefits the most from these changes, with BioWare updating it to match the level of polish in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.
However, Mass Effect 2 and 3 see several improvements too, including changes to Galaxy at War and better audio.
It'll be easier to track your reputation stats and, while obtaining the desired ending is still difficulty, BioWare said you're more in control of getting the ending you want.
Read more: Mass Effect Legendary Edition: Platforms, release, and everything we know
Mass Effect Legendary Edition Changes to the Original
Legendary Edition updates the original Mass Effect in several ways.
The biggest is improving aim accuracy, aim assist, and aiming down sites accuracy.
BioWare also tweaked abilities and buffs.
Here’s a broad overview of Mass Effect Legendary Edition changes to the original.
It's a doozy, so strap in.
- Shepard can now sprint out of combat
- Melee attacks are now mapped to a button press rather than automatically occurring based on proximity to an enemy
- Weapon accuracy and handling has been significantly improved
- Reticle bloom is more controlled
- Weapon sway removed from sniper rifles
- Aiming down sights/”tight aim” camera view has been improved
- Improved aim assist for target acquisition
- All relevant enemies now take headshot damage in the first game
- Previously some did not, including humanoid enemies
- Ammo mods (Anti-Organic, Anti-Synthetic, etc.) can now drop throughout the whole game
- Previously, these stopped dropping at higher player levels
- They are now also available to purchase from merchants
- All weapons can be used by any class without penalty
- Specializations (the ability to train/upgrade certain weapons) are still class-specific
- Weapons cool down much faster
- Medi-gel usage has been improved
- Base cooldown reduced
- Levelling benefits increased
- Increased Liara’s bonus to cooldowns
- Inventory management improvements
- Items can now be flagged as “Junk”
- All Junk items can be converted into Omni-gel or sold to merchants at once
- Inventory and stores now have sorting functionality
- Some abilities have been rebalanced
- Weapon powers (i.e., those that are unlocked on each weapon type’s skill tree) have been improved:
- Effectiveness/strength is increased (duration reduced in some cases)
- Heat now resets on power activation
- Squadmates can now be commanded independently of each other in the first Mass Effect, the same way you can command them individually in Mass Effect 2 and 3
- Some boss fights and enemies in the first game have been tweaked to be fairer for players but still challenging
- Rebalanced XP gain
Mass Effect Legendary Edition Changes to The M-35 Mako
The infamous Mako vehicle should be much less infuriating to pilot now in Mass Effect Legendary Edition
- The Mako receives its own set of changes, including
- Improved handling
- Better camera controls
- New thrusters
- Faster shield recharge
How Does Mass Effect Legendary Edition Change ME 2 and ME 3?
Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 see fewer substantial changes apart from the enhanced graphics.
Most of the tweaks to these two revolve around streamlining the overall experience.
General Changes
- Additional cover added to some encounters
- Entering and exiting cover is now more reliable
- Ammo drops have been rebalanced in Mass Effect 2
New unified launcher for all three games
- Includes trilogy-wide settings for subtitles and languages
- Saves are still unique to each game and can be managed independently of each other
Updated character creator options
- FemShep from Mass Effect 3 is the new default female option in all three games (the original FemShep design is still available as a preset option)
Achievements
- Achievements across the trilogy have been updated
- New achievements have been added to the trilogy
- Progress for some achievements now carries over across all three games (e.g. Kill 250 enemies across all games)
- Achievements that were streamlined into one and made redundant were removed
- A number of achievements have had their objectives/descriptions and/or names updated
Integrated weapons and armor DLC packs
- Weapons and armor DLC packs are now integrated naturally into the game; they’re obtainable via research or by purchasing them from merchants as you progress through the game, rather than being immediately unlocked from the start. This ensures overall balance and progression across ME2 and ME3
Other Fixes
- Recon Hood (ME2) and Cerberus Ajax Armor (ME3) are available at the start of each game
- Additional gameplay & Quality of life improvements
- Audio is remixed and enhanced across all games
- Hundreds of legacy bugs from the original releases are fixed
- Native controller and 21:9 display support on PC, with DirectX 11 compatibility
Mass Effect Legendary Edition Changes to Galaxy at War
The Legendary Edition also tweaks Galaxy at War to create a fairer, more balanced experience.
- Factors such as multiplayer no longer affect Galactic Readiness
- Resolved bug fixes affecting dialogue choices and skewing reputation stats
Read more: Mass Effect Legendary Edition could make or break BioWare
[Source: EA]
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