We're All Playing Mass Effect!

The moment all Mass Effect fans were waiting for finally arrived on May 14th--the release of the remastered "Legendary Edition."  Since then, my newsfeeds have all been chocked full of ME content.  It's a glorious moment for those of us who have been heavily invested in the saga of Commander Shepard.

It's great to be home.

I've spent all my gaming time over the last eight days neck deep in the original Mass Effect.  For me, it was the game I was most looking forward to playing and seeing what all the upgrades and improvements would bring.  I generally replay the trilogy once a year and I had actually skipped that for several years--largely due to the fact that the first game has...issues.  Some of those issues were technical (the AMD CPU bug that turns your team into chunky, black block people for the duration of the Peak 15 segment of the Noveria mission) and some were gameplay oriented (let's all just face the fact that the game is fourteen years old and it definitely shows its age in the combat and exploration segments).  I genuinely hoped that playing the first game would feel like less of a chore in the remaster.

Good news/bad news time!  Let's start with the bad news first so we can get it out of the way.  Even with the graphical upgrades and the combat upgrades, the first game still has a degree of slowness.  You'll still encounter things that bug the crap out of you--like how all the potential love interests are reeeaaal needy and constantly interpret simple conversations as genuine romantic intentions (I'm currently saving my Shep for Traynor, so I had to shut down both Kaiden and Liara).  Something I noticed this time around is that the first couple hours of the game in particular feel very slow--they're basically a chance to orient yourself with the game world, but you spend a lot of time on the Citadel just running around and talking to people.  The exploration is definitely very dated and planets just feel kind of empty (open-world games have sort of ruined that particular aspect of the game).

My Shep!  Engineer/Paragon--waiting for Traynor.

Now, for the good stuff!  The added character creation tools means that there are some genuinely unique and awesome looking Shepards being created.  For some people, there will never be enough character creator options, but I am loving seeing people post their Shepards.  The best change by far is the graphics upgrade (*I'm not playing in 4k--I don't have a 4k monitor.  Even at 1080p it looks great).  Everything, from NPC's to planets looks awesome (*one thing that doesn't look too awesome are some of the faces...just sayin').  The best way to enjoy the improved graphics is to snap a bajillion screenshots using the new photomode--something I've been doing with wild abandon.  There are some great screenies floating around on the interweb and I'm constantly impressed by what people are able to capture.

Another huge positive is the fact that the enemy AI is better (but still feels a bit outdated and wonky).  No longer are you rushed by every enemy in a ten mile radius (and, I think part of the issue with this is the fact that so many of the combat areas are not designed as more open spaces and are instead very maze-like which results in enemies being forced to run straight toward you).  I've had much more opportunity to fully utilize my squad powers and strategize rather than just running around like a headless chicken and hoping that I will survive.  I decided to give insanity mode a stab (something that I had never managed to complete in the original game) and am finding it to be very doable.

Although I've seen many people complaining about stability issues, I have had zero issues so far (*do remember that the autosave in the first game is very infrequent--smash F5-"quick save" like you're a Lannister and it's a close relative).  The only bug I encountered was one that caused the "interact" button to stop working (this is easily remedied by a re-load, which is no problem with all the quick saving I do).  There are still some bugs that need to be worked out (one frustrating, but not particularly serious one is the fact that Spectre gear only appears for sale a couple of times and isn't permanently accessible).

Oh sweet Mako, you are magical.

One improvement that I was particularly excited about was the new and improved Mako controls.  Well, it turns out that driving and shooting in the same direction sucks, so I had to turn them off.  The new and improved thresher maws require some careful navigation and shooting.  I'm happy to report that the Mako is just as janky as it has always been.

If you're out there and wondering if you should play the first game, I would recommend it, but I would also caution that if you're expecting a vastly different experience than in the past, you're probably going to be disappointed.  For fans of the series, the upgrades are fun to check out.  For new players, the first game will probably be a bit of a difficult play. (*but seriously, ignore all the people who are screaming "YOU'RE NOT A TRUE FAN IF YOU SKIP ME1!" Play how you want to play.)