'Mass Effect Legendary Edition' Makes Some Major Changes To Gameplay

A remastered edition of the Mass Effect trilogy has been long overdue, don't you think? The stories contained within the sci-fi games are still talked about like they came out yesterday, but some gameplay aspects haven't aged as well as the creative universe they're set in. So BioWare is changing them. Though Mass Effect's upgrade is mostly visual in many ways, some gameplay changes are going to be made according to a post on the PlayStation blog.

We've already heard a bit about boss fight changes, but Jay Ingram, a Community Manager for EA/BioWare writes about the challenges the team faced finding a good balance between the old combat spread over three games, and what a new take on these mechanics might look like. Well, there are a long number of changes to the original Mass Effect that all sound like they work to make the game better as a whole - some slight changes to balancing, and some additional RPG mechanics that have become popular since the original release of the games (like trading junk items for useful resources).

Thankfully, first and foremost is that Shepard can now sprint everywhere in Mass Effect. Honestly, that's all I really wanted to hear. Here is a long list of changes you'll see in the first game.

• 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 and improved aim assist for target acquisition
• All relevant enemies now take headshot damage in the first game
• Ammo mods (Anti-Organic, Anti-Synthetic, etc.) can now drop throughout the whole game and 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
• 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

Changes will also be made to The Mako, the infamous vehicle that was just a little hard to control when the original game came out. Importantly the update informs us that although it'll handle better now, yes you can still drive it off cliffs if you like. Mako changes include: Improved handling, improved camera controls, faster shield recharge, new thrusters for speed boosts, no XP penalty while in the Mako, and touching lava in the car doesn't instantly give you a mission failure. Instead, it'll do some damage to the Mako over time, thank goodness.

Other changes include new hairstyles and skin tone for Shepard so that they can look exactly how you'd like them to. Original DLC weapons and armour will be in the game and obtainable through research or buying them from merchants. And all the audio from all three games has been remixed entirely, so I can't wait to hear the juicy new sounds of Reapers coming to kill me.

The entire blog post is available here if you're interested in seeing what the team has to say about other rebalancing and how progress continues from game to game. We can't wait to see Mass Effect: Legendary Edition come out May 14, 2021, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.