Gameplay enhancements are coming to Mass Effect Legendary Edition

With Mass Effect, as a series, the gameplay evolved over time and while some things improved for some players, the original game suffered by comparison. What Bioware wanted to avoid, was changing things for the sake of changing things, they wanted to ensure that the memories that players had of exploring the Presidium or other locations, still evoked those memories.

The locations did get a once over, to ensure that what was important remained, items that you might not have even realised are new, will fit in just as if they were always there. Perhaps the best example they showed was in one location on the Presidium has a bunch of chairs added to a balcony, it doesn’t change the impact the scene, but it makes it feel fuller. Something that falls in the interesting space is that once the team had a version of the game, that was playable, though not complete, they offered it up internally to all staff of EA, to get feedback about what worked, what didn’t and it helped the team make some additional changes that they were perhaps a little too close to see. They also connected with some die-hard fans, to ask what they were hearing from the larger community, what people were after from a project like this and of course, the original Mass Effect was the biggest target.

One of the aspects that got touched up first was on PC and specifically it was around controller support, something that the original didn’t have and once that was in, the conversation started to become about controller mapping. That evolved into discussions about the HUD and other elements, not to change it, but how can they update it to match the later games and while those are all secondary, they were also able to improve the flow of the game and yes that includes the elevators. Anyone who played the original Mass Effect will have a tale about the slowest elevators on the Presidium and anyone who says they were not slow, is lying.

I got to see a clip, showing a side by side of the new vs the old and things are insane now, in the video the original ride took 52 seconds to make the journey, the new version of the game 14 seconds. It isn’t just the fact that it is faster overall, which is super impressive, but there is more and it comes up, at least on PC, in that once the game has loaded where you are going, a prompt appears to let you skip to the end of the ride, cutting out all that remaining ride time. Now any improvement to the elevators was going to be a massive change, but the fact that things will still feel natural, the elevator doesn’t fly around like it was made for Willy Wonka or anything, helps keep those memories intact.

But there were also changes to combat, allowing for things like a stronger aim assist, for players who maybe are not used to shooters, smoothing out the controls and such. I also got to see a prototype space, where they showed off the new HUD, which is not as large or a clunky looking as the original, but still feels like Mass Effect. For all intents and purposes, what players enjoyed from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 will likely find its way into Mass Effect 1, again, providing that cohesive experience from start to end. The Mako also got a touch up to how it handles and controls, giving players a smoother experience, so it hopefully no longer feels like a few metric ton of lead on wheels, just how well they succeed, we will have to wait and see.

Those are some of the larger changes to gameplay, which again tend to focus on Mass Effect, rather than the sequels, but across the board, they made so many more changes and improvements. From the games now allowing for more auto save points, or the inclusion of a dedicated melee button and even the AI got a boost. The enemy AI is now smarter and more responsive to the threat you pose, but on the other side, your squad AI has more awareness of what is going on and if you want to take control of them, the issuing of commands is easier. Perhaps one of the best changes is that you can now use any weapon class gun, but if you are not specialised in it, you can’t train up with them, but you can at least point and shoot. One particular touch I can’t wait to try out is the minigames, they are now more consistent across all the games, but they are also now unified in their controls, meaning you won’t have to keep learning new controls.

There are so many changes they didn’t go into, unified controls, rebalanced levelling, improved boss fights and more, I can’t wait to try it out, and that will happen on May 14th.